For a few years, different specialists in nutrition, psychology and pediatrics have been detecting that the age of onset of eating disorders decreases worryingly.
What can lead a girl (or boy) of 10, nine, eight or seven years to want to diet (or make exaggerated food intakes)? A priori we could say that children imitate the adult world, especially if it is linked to concepts of social success. Wanting to resemble an idol of teenagers until you cross the boundaries can be dangerous, but surely there are other factors that influence.
A sick society manifests its symptoms through people, or so I think, and many times we do not stop to reflect on how our actions affect children
Priority of common sense and experience as adults
Fortunately, most of us can say that our children do not suffer from obesity or Eating Disorders - T.A. - (different diseases that are occurring at the same time). But would we know how to detect any of the T.A. if we were close to a person who begins to suffer from them?
About a year ago my son looked fat, and did not stop eating but my alarms jumped, fat ?, my children are at their weight, sometimes they throw thin because although they eat well they exercise enough. But I found that perception of his body surprising.
I have to say that some of her classmates (then 3rd Primary) already care a lot about the image, and that she may have received influence from a boy with parents obsessed with a perfect diet and body. Be that as it may, after some talks 'the waters returned to their channel' and the subject has not been mentioned again. We wanted to convey the idea of be at ease with your own body and prioritize well-being before the image.
Before telling you what are the triggers of a disorder such as anorexia, I would like to make a reflection as obvious as it is away from our daily lives. Fathers and mothers try to prevent children from witnessing violence and explicit sex on television and the Internet, and we do so knowing that they will still receive violent and erotic stimuli completely inappropriate for their development; but if we don't try to protect them, who will?
But now tell me: Do we also protect them from the images in which the protagonists of their favorite series exhibit excessive thinness as if it were the only possibility of having a body? Do we reflect when an eight-year-old girl asks us to dress like a 14-year-old girl (as if she had suddenly 'burned six years'? listen to adult songs that refer to 'sexy' girls and boys?.
What determines the onset of eating disorders?
Before continuing I would like to clarify (because I think it is important) that the latest information from CiberObn indicates that although we all think that anorexia is the most common of the T.A., actually bulimia nervosa and unspecified disorders exceed the figures of the first.
Marta Ampuero in this interview told us that at the family level, over-exigency, excessive worrying about physical appearance can influence; and from the point of view of the social, very biased beauty canons are being offered ('being thin to succeed'). They can also influence aspects related to individuality such as lack of autonomy or self-esteem.
We live surrounded by beauty stereotypes that show us that being significantly thin is an incentive at the social level. In panels of the large surfaces, in bus shelters, in television commercials faces and bodies that perhaps our children would like to be shown are shown. It doesn't count being healthy or feeling good, but being attractive to others.
And on the other hand to girls (especially) We sexualize them very early, ignoring the consequences that this irresponsible thought may have. His self-image is being built, our role is not to distort it but to guide them so that they have their own criteria.
In conclusion I have to clarify that children cannot (should not) diet, not even when an adult (without criteria) tells them what foods to do without. To stop taking the macronutrients that they need for their growth is to risk too much to have health problems. In any case, it would be the doctor who, due to some type of allergy or illness, should indicate the absence of certain foods.
And as a curiosity, as obesity increases, so do the T.A. and these present very poor prognosis. We're not going to stop educating our children about good eating habits, right? Now we have time to prevent.
