Parents get primer on eating disorders

Being overweight carries some heavy baggage for children and adolescents, including early onset of diseases once thought the province of adults, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

But there's a deadly flip side, as well. Increasing numbers of children are becoming obsessed with their negative views of their bodies or are channeling other problems into eating disorders that, left untreated, can kill.

Primary Children's Medical Center is launching a four-week class starting Feb. 3 to teach parents about eating disorders. The goal is to help parents understand what's happening, if their children's changing eating habits could signal dangerous eating disorders and that the road back is long for those who have one — and for their families.

An estimated 10 million American females and 1 million males have an eating disorder. Some are as young as 8.

Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, various forms of bulimia, binge eating disorder (patients don't purge), and various combinations. There's also a form called Body Dysmorphic Disorder — seeing one's body in a very distorted, negative way.

Eating disorders "put a terrible strain on the heart, are bad for the teeth and change brain functioning. Eating is one of the most important biologically wired programs. At least four different overlapping systems ensure that we eat properly and, if we don't, we starve and die. A survival system is built into the body, and when you start to mess with that, it affects many levels of brain functioning," said Mary Hales, a psychologist and neuropsychologist at Primary and in private practice, who teaches the class.

"One of my big goals is to add education to this whole process, and one of the missing links . . . is education of parents."

She was drawn to it several years ago when a young relative developed an eating disorder. "Even as a professional, I didn't know a lot I needed to and I had no idea where to turn. It has become a labor of love for me to help parents deal with and understand what's happening, why eating disorders are so complex."

"We're trying for early intervention to make the course of recovery shorter, not prevention," said PCMC spokeswoman Bonnie Midget. "I don't think you can prevent it.

"With all of the emphasis on obesity, kids feel justified in extreme behavior. They're getting messages on how terrible it is to be fat, but we need to temper it with reason. There are kids for whom messages about obesity are going to be devastating."