Parental role in preventing eating disorders

MORE eating disorders could be prevented if parents recognised their child’s obsession with dieting was a cause for concern, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist has claimed.

While it was necessary to treat eating disorders, there must be a shift in focus to prevent the onset of the disorder, said Professor Fiona McNicholas.

The introduction of social, personal and health education into schools might go some way towards improving self-image and self-esteem among Irish school children, she suggested. But, she said, health professionals also needed to play a role in preventing and detecting unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviours.

Prof McNicholas was the main speaker at a parents’ information evening in Dublin last night organised by the Lucena Foundation, a service of the St John of God Hospital in Stillorgan.

Parents needed to be aware that children may be at risk of developing an eating disorder if they were becoming obsessed with dieting, she said.

Prof McNicholas led recent research that showed children most at risk were unhappy, perceived themselves as not good looking, had diet concerns, were bullied more than twice a month and felt they were below average academically.

Her research showed more than one in five teenage girls were on a diet when they were interviewed and a third wanted to be or thought they should be on one.

“A person on a diet will not deny it. They talk about how they are starving, how they have not eaten anything and have not lost any weight either. But somebody with an eating disorder will often deny they are on a diet,” she said.