Gold Coast children being admitted to hospital in rising trend of eating disorders

A GROWING number of children as young as nine are being admitted into Gold Coast University Hospital for being dangerously underweight as eating disorders continue to rise.

DANGEROUSLY underweight children as young as nine are being admitted to Gold Coast University Hospital in a surge in the number of juvenile patients with eating disorders.

Professor Peter Jones of Bond University, who also practises in the wards as a paediatrician, said cases had doubled since the hospital opened in 2013 — and he warned that low self-esteem was a driving factor.

He said the children often needed emergency feeding via a nasogastric tube.

PROGRAM FOR TEENS WITH EATING DISORDERS OPENS ON COAST

More and more younger children, especially boys, are coming in with eating disorders,

“It’s very unusual to not have a couple of children (in at any one time), and now it’s up to five or six of those children filling up these acute beds, being monitored, having blood tests and those sorts of things,” he said.

“We do see a number of boys who are coming in with eating disorders that we weren’t seeing before.”

Prof Jones said anecdotally the number of male patients had increased from about two per cent to 10 or even 20 per cent of total cases.

Children of both sexes were coming into hospital with a very low body mass index, often “several’’ kilograms below a healthy weight.

He said many eating disorder cases were linked to low self-esteem despite the children often outwardly appearing to be successful in everything they did, from sport to academic achievement.

“Often the children affected appear to have everything going for them,” said Prof Jones.

“They come from good families, can excel academically and be gifted in extra-curricular activities like music, sport and drama.

“But on the inside, often these children are crying out for help and this reality can create confusion for family members who can only see the successes and abilities of their child.”

Prof Jones said many of the children required ongoing treatment and support lasting months or years, with anorexia especially requiring dedicated resources.

Dr Kim Hurst counsels teenagers who have eating disorders at Robina Private Hospital. Photo by Richard Gosling

“The inpatient treatment is only the beginning,” he said.

“Improving their physical symptoms can often be achieved in a few weeks but improving the child’s emotional wellbeing takes much longer.

“It requires a team and often multiple teams working together to make progress with an eating disorder.”

Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the issue of negative body image was prevalent among children, with research from Mission Australia showing it was listed as their third most common concern.

Social media could be a bad influence.

“The research shows that if people do look at Snapchat and Instagram, it increases the likelihood that they will self objectify,” he said.

“There’s a desire to (reduce social media) but that’s here to stay. Parents can minimise risk factors by focusing on young people’s achievements and efforts rather than ... saying ‘you’re very pretty’.”

According to statistics from the Butterfly Foundation, which deals with eating disorders, 9 per cent of the population will be affected. The economic cost is estimated at $69.7 billion a year.

Gold Coast Medical Association president Dr Sonu Haikerwal said more young people were experiencing mental health issues.

“I have heard anorexia, which used to be affecting teenagers, is affecting younger people,” she said.

A poor relationship with food is ‘common’ with younger people, says a Gold Coast doctor.

“Certainly a poor relationship to food is very common. I’m seeing boys as well now, but mostly girls. I’ll ask them what they think of their body and they’ll say ‘No, I think I’m too fat’. The body image issue if very common.”

Dr Peta Stapleton of Bond University’s School of Psychology, who has 25 years experience working in hospital emergency departments, confirmed a trend of top students succumbing to eating disorders.

“Children who are worriers or anxious, who might be shy or over-achievers, are the ones who are at risk,” she said.

“They are the ones who usually cause no issues for parents or teachers.

“Anxiousness is a breeding ground for eating disorders and to me, these are the children who need the most attention to help them handle worry before it becomes a problem.”

Dr Stapleton said parents and teachers should pay close attention to how students were coping with stress.

“Children can misinterpret the feelings of worry in their stomach and body and often when they eat in that state, they feel sick,’’ she said.

“Because they don’t really know it is worry, not the food, they will remove what they think causes it — the food.

“Then a vicious cycle starts of weight loss, less food to make the anxiousness less in their stomach, and a feedback loop in the early days might be positive, such as people giving them compliments if they lose weight.”

Dr Stapleton said children should be taught to understand physiological signs in their body, such as stress, and it had nothing to do with food.

Gold Coast University Hospital acting clinical director of mental health Dr Sandeep Chand said binge eating disorders were also on the rise thanks to a rise in childhood obesity.

The hospital runs the Gold Coast Health Eating Disorder Program which was established 10 years ago.

Anyone who may need help with an eating disorder can call the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673.