Four year old boy w/anorexia?

LauraMax

LauraMax

Cathlete
I saw on the news the other day a story about a 4 year old boy w/anorexia. How in the hell can a 4 year old boy have an eating disorder? He couldn’t possibly even have a “body image” yet. IMO eating disorders is something the medical world came up to make money off girls/women who are merely obsessed w/their weight.

Frankly (& I really don’t mean to offend anyone here, it’s just my own opinion), eating disorders are found primarily among middle class white girls/women, which just irritates the heck out of me. Generally they have it pretty good & I have serious issues w/these women leading privileged lives looking for sympathy b/c they’ve gotten themselves into a tremendous mess (that's right, "gotten THEMSELVES"--the responsibility rests with them, and to some extent their parents), then they try to blame society, the media, the fashion industry, Hollywood, or the fact that their brother kept stealing their Krispy Kremes when they were little kids.

I see a 14 year old girl from a wealthy family who has had all the advantages available in life whining b/c she weighs 80 lbs & still thinks she feels fat. Then I see a 14 year old girl who's growing up in the ghetto & struggling every day to find a way to rise above poverty, find a way to pay for a good education, find a decent job, & be able to feed & raise her own family in the future. She couldn't care less about her weight--she's just working her butt off to avoid becoming another statistic in Watts.

When I compare those two girls, for whom do you think I feel sympathetic?

This is an issue that has bothered me tremendously for years. And as a pseudo-historian, I know for a fact “eating disorders” didn’t even exist until the last few decades. From my perspective that says an awful lot........

JMHO
 
First: the boy actually have been not treated correctly since birth and could have a "failure to thrive". This is a real thing (DH is a medical student), where a child isn't give physical contact and proper nurisment, and their body stops growing, - a real and aweful problem. I also have an issue with a boy 4 (I have a 4 yr old boy) being able to even conceive body awareness. They don't even have awareness of when their naked LOL.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030901/879.html


Second: I have an issue with your statement about eating disorders. Our societ IS to blaim for the standard women and girls feel like they have to fulfill. I have cellulite on my legs, I'm fit, but it's still there, have had it since 16 - NO ONE has told me that my legs are just as beautiful as someone without cellulite. Do you think it's as good looking as someone without cellulite? I battled with the idea of eating as a teenager because of it, but it never escalated. I DO think society is a problem and it just reinforces these standards. Women have to overcome society and accept their bodies as their own unique body and to love themselves, because society may not think they are beautiful to love for various reasons. Add this to a hormonal young girl, and you have potential for disaster. Some people are weak in certain areas and are more likely to have an eating disorder because of it. Ecomonics isn't the real problem.
 
You know, anorexia is as much about body image and how you look as rape is about sex.

Perhaps this little boy has stopped eating in order to have some control in a life that he feels he has no control over. What is going on in this little boy's life that he feels he has to stop eating to try to have some power?

And just because they weren't called eating disorders doesn't mean they didn't exist. Many psychological disorders have only been labelled recently. Things like PMS and clinical depression.

For those of us who have been diagnosed with eating disorders, we aren't crying out for sympathy. In fact, you probably don't even know with many of the women you talk to. We hide. We don't broadcast.

I'd love to be able to look at a plate of food and see food, not the enemy.
 
I know that eating disorders are not something the medical world came up with to make money. In fact, I think the medical community is ill-equipped in how to even handle these disorders. There have been many diseases discovered within the last few decades none of them "made up" (lupus,crohn's disease, etc.) At the turn of the century it would have been impossible for control issues to be manifested via food because it wasn't as readily available as it is today.

I believe that the beginning of an eating disorder lies within one's body image vs. society's body ideal. Many girls (and boys) are continually exposed to sexual images of "perfected" shells of women. Even the covers of fitness magazines show these shells of unwrinkled, celluliteless, and often surgically enhanced "women".

As a girl discovers that she will never achieve this "ideal", a loss of control is unearthed. In retaliation, she tries to control her body even more, and so on. It is a vicious cycle. One feels dysfunctional and ashamed because of their behavior. The chemical imbalance created within her body enhances these emotions.
 
First: the boy actually have been not treated correctly since birth and could have a "failure to thrive". This is a real thing (DH is a medical student), where a child isn't give physical contact and proper nurisment, and their body stops growing, - a real and aweful problem.

I agree the above is a possible proper DX. One of my adopted sons was the size of a 3 month old at 1 Year (when he came to us) and was not even able to suck a bottle let alone eat even baby food. He had been beaten, ignored, and starved.

And eating disorders are real and exist in many forms on many levels.
 
Hey shelley I agree with you, I too want to and crave to eat food without seeing the enemy, I want to go out and eat and enjoy food without the pain, For me perfection is not how much one weighs, or how ones nose looks or how big ones breasts are and is not achieved through plastic surgery, and everything we do to our bodies to achieve perfection, to me it is when I can look in the mirror and see who I am, they way I am and LOVE ME!!!!!!!!!! that is perfection!!! not image! but me on the inside that is so badly damaged,
 
I try and I fight it, it is like taking two steps forward and then taking 4 backwards, somedays I feel like I just can't fight it, it is such a demon with such a hold, I have 39 years to battle and fight, so hard and I don't wish this on any one
 
I think this one is going to be a touchy topic.
I also think that everyone as a right to their opinions no matter what they may be.

I really don't think that anyone chooses to be aneroxic...just like no one chooses to be homosexuals. Can you imagine how hard it must be for someone to tell their parents that they like the same sex? And Im sure there wasn't much talk of men and women being homosexuals years ago, but that doesn't mean it didn't exsist either.Im sure it did.Just an example.There are so many things today that no one thinks exsisted years ago...but what killed some of our anchesters? No one knows...b/c they didn't have the knowledge back then that they do now.

I really do not look at young women with eating disorders and think..."geez..why are you doing that to yourself" Ive never thought of it as self inflicted and I never will.

Lori:)

ETA: with this being said, I don't know what it feels like to have a disorder.But I know lots of people who do. Things aren't always black and white...there are many directions the road of life can take us.
 
Eating disorders are very real. The 14 year old girl who is whining at 80 pounds that she's fat is focusing on her body because she can't deal with the real problems in her life. She blocks those issues out with the obsession with dieting/food/body. It's a psychological problem that she didn't choose to have. Just because you think that she has had all the advantages in life doesn't mean that you know what goes on behind closed doors. Maybe there has been some kind of abuse, maybe her parents are too demanding, controlling, maybe there is alcoholism or some form of dysfunction in the family that she doesn't know how to deal with, but she can control the food that she puts in her body and her weight.

It's not your place to judge.x(

Erica
 
I do think eating disorders are real illnesses. Just because I can't personally understand why someone else would not want to eat doesn't mean that problem doesn't exist.

I do think however, that eating disorders are strongly influenced by the expectations of society. If our society admired the appearance of heavyset people, how do you think all the naturally thin people would feel... a little abnormal, perhaps? I can envision these thin people trying pack on a few more of those much admired pounds - and some of them may develop an eating disorder where they can't stop, even though it's killing them.

As for the rich girl vs. poor girl scenario - well, Laura, you're right that before you worry about a personal image, you have to meet your basic survival needs. But it may very well be that those rich white girls were shunted off to daycare from the time they were babies, never had much of a home life because the wealthy parents were too busy making money, and they're in need of attention. Not just teenage greed, but really, really in need of it. Who knows?

I just don't think we can judge a person until we've walked in their shoes.
 
Wow, I haven't even heard of this 4 year old boy who is anorexic. Sounds to me like he's being abused, no 4 year old would think to starve themselves for attention would they? Anyone have a link online about this?

Laura, correct me if I'm wrong but are you talking about people like Courtney Cox, Paris Hilton, Nichole Richie and other women who are excessively thin and yes, in some cases, anorexic? If so, I agree with you. However, there are women/girls who are not rich and famous who have an eating disorder. I have an eating disorder. I'm not anorexic, but I have an obsession with food. If I don't count my calories each day, I just don't eat right. I can eat all day if I let myself and non-stop. I don't know why, I've never been abused, I am in no way rich or famous and I'm in a very stable, heathy relationship.

HOWEVER, the women I mentioned above(I believe) do this for the attention and not because they don't know they are hurting themselves. And they are setting the standards for young women today. Its just sad that people can't be happy with who they are and what they looked like. I sure wish I could.
 
Wow. I must admit I was really pissed when I first read this thread.

Pick your poison. Some people abuse alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, food etc. And some may even try to starve themselves. On the surface it is easy to point and say that these things are self-inflicted. And in a sense that is true. But it goes much deeper than that.

I really think you have to walk a mile in someone's shoes before you can make a broad statment like: "IMO eating disorders is something the medical world came up to make money off girls/women who are merely obsessed w/their weight."

We all have our demons and sometimes they manifest themselves in the most unflattering ways. We need to stop the BLAME for "self-inflicted" coping mechanisms and we need to start finding better ways to HELP these people (just about the entire population!) cope and deal with their issues that are not destructive to themselves and those around them. It is so easy to sit back and crucify people. Not so easy is getting involved and becoming part of a solution.
 
I'm convinced that LauraMax drops these little bombs on us every now and again to keep us on our toes... *winks*

Back before being really thin was fashionable, back in the dark ages when I was in junior high and high school, one of the girls I went to school with developed anorexia. She was (probably still is) highly competitive and always, always perfect. Well, she dated a guy (in 9th grade!) who dumped her for a thinner girl. I doubt one thing had anything to do with the other, but as this was something that was not perfect in her perfect world, she searched for the reason so that she could correct it, and the only reason she could come up with was that the other girl was thinner. Now weight is something she could control (a lot easier than the fact that it must be very uncomfortable dating someone who is always perfect) so she went on a diet. But she became obsessed with dieting and ended up as a raging anorexic who required years of therapy and help before she could finally see that being thin is not what triggered this boy to break up with her (she was gorgeous! She's not now). I don't look at anorexia as whining. I look at it more as a way to gain control over one part of your life when you do not (for whatever reason) feel that you have control. And we all know that no matter how beautiful, intelligent, or perfect we are in junior high and high school - we have no control over the horrible gossip and plain cattiness that goes on.
 
Shelley and Lesliemarie, I agree with you 100 percent. I would love to see food in normal fashion. I've struggled with food issues my entire life. MY ENTIRE LIFE. I remember being 6 or 7 years old and worrying that I was fat and ugly.

Frankly, I find the original post incredibly obnoxious. Laura aren't you the one who is disgusted by fat people as well? And the idiot women at your gym? And the smelly men who have the nerve to sweat while working out? What is with these posts that denigrate others?

And, BTW, you're incorrect about eating disorders existing only in the last few decades. Instances of eating disorders have been recorded for centuries, particularly amongst religious women and girls. There are several well-regarded books on the topic. I suggest "Fasting Girls: a History of Anorexia Nervosa" and "Holy Anorexia."

Annoyed,

Sparrow


Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow - what a ride!’ — Peter Sage
 
>I try and I fight it, it is like taking two steps forward and
>then taking 4 backwards, somedays I feel like I just can't
>fight it, it is such a demon with such a hold, I have 39 years
>to battle and fight, so hard and I don't wish this on any one


I'm right there with you! One day at a time, ladies :D

Sparrow

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow - what a ride!’ — Peter Sage
 
Wow, I took a break last week after reading the famous breast implant thread. Looks like I came back too soon.

I hope that somehow this train wreck can become become supportive. I am really saddened by this......I really think that kindness and compassion are in order for those who struggle with any body image issues.

Melissa

Keep your head in line. Your butt will follow.

http://www.picturetrail.com/pellmel
 
>I'm convinced that LauraMax drops these little bombs on us
>every now and again to keep us on our toes... *winks*

Bingo!
 
I won't comment on anything other than the 4-year-old with anorexia.

It's certainly possible for a 4-year-old to have anorexia or bullemia. It's, thankfully, very rare, I would think, but if he does have it, I would suspect a very dysfunctional family environment: maybe one in which one or both parents are obsessed with losing weight or "not getting fat" and have virtually brainwashed the child into becoming an anorexic himself.
 
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