Children ditch meals for diet shakes as eating disorders hit kids as young as seven

QUEENSLAND kids as young as seven are being treated for eating disorders - and a disturbing new lunch trend isn’t helping.

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QUEENSLAND children are ditching meals for diet shakes – an alarming trend that has emerged as 2014 data shows an explosion of kids as young as seven being treated for eating disorders.

Eating disorder specialists report a spike in children regularly using meal-replacement shakes. And with 55,318 young Queenslanders presenting with eating disorders last year, Butterfly Foundation chief executive Christine Morgan fears the hold-the-food trend could further inflate the shocking figures.

KIDS’ VEGANISM: A choice or a danger?

In the 10 years to 2012, the number of children aged 7-12 being treated as outpatients by clinicians spiked by 1000 per cent. The new figures show a further 17 per cent increase to 2014.

Data from the Butterfly Foundation, updated by the Sydney Children’s Hospital, also shows that children ­admitted to hospital are ­requiring longer stays due to the increasing complexity of their eating disorder.

“Unless under medical supervision, no child or adolescent should be replacing nutritional meals with supplements, or the latest fad diet trend of meal-replacement shakes,” said Ms Morgan, from the national eating disorders collaboration.

“Not only is this norm­alising dieting and food restriction behaviour, it can develop into disordered eating or a clinical eating disorder. Children are very impressionable and will mimic good and bad eating behaviours role-modelled in their home by their parents and siblings.”

The foundation confirmed children aged seven were seeing a clinician for eating disorders.

Brisbane child psychologist and eating-disorder specialist Elyse McNeil has seen a sharp rise in children who are copying the habits of dieting parents on meal-replacement products.

“Children using meal-­replacement shakes for weight loss is a concerning trend. Promoting a need to ‘diet’ in the first instance ­promotes the idea that shape and weight are key deter­minants of self-worth,” Ms McNeil said.

“Children need to see not everything is about weight and their body shape, and that health above all should be the ultimate priority.”

The Brisbane psychologist said the youngest ­patient she had treated who was on shakes was 13 but was sure that younger children were copying their parents.

Gold Coast mother Margo Priestly admitted she had a massive wake-up call when she found out that her nine-year-old daughter was sneaking slim shakes to school rather than eating a packed lunch.

“I was on meal-replacement shakes as I was trying to lose weight from having a baby. When I realised that Lily thought she should do the same, I was horrified and I immediately stopped taking them and banned them from the house,” she said.

“I am always one for encouraging a healthy body image in my children … You have to be very careful.”

For support, call the Butterfly Foundation support line for eating disorders on 1800 334 673