Obesity-prevention Programs in Schools May be Causing Eating Disorders
Posted on Feb 11th, 2012 |
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About 7% of children participating in school-based obesity prevention programs have been teased or made to feel bad about what or how much they were eating at school, according to a new study from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
The research team conducted a national survey of parents in an effort to determine if obesity prevention programs could actually contribute to eating disorders among children. Over 80% of the parents in the survey with children ages 6 to 14 years old said the these programs were available at their children’s schools, and they included nutritional education, limiting junk food and sweets served on campus, taking height and weight measurements of students, and encouraging students to increase their physical exercise. About 30% of the parents reported that their children had at least one behavior that could be an indicator or precursor for eating disorders, such as dieting, worrying excessively about the amount of fat in their food, being preoccupied with food labels, overexercising, and declining to eat with their families.
"The issue of childhood obesity is a serious problem," said Dr. David Rosen, clinical professor of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry at the University Of Michigan Medical School and Chief of Teenage and Young Adult Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. "When obesity interventions are put in place without understanding how they work and what the risks are, there can be unintended consequences. … given what we know about the association of these behaviors with the development of eating disorders and knowing that eating disorders are increasing in prevalence, they should be taken very seriously."
Dr. Rosen said it is up to parents to intervene on their child’s behalf if their child is the victim of teasing about eating issues, and that it was important to engage themselves in their school’s childhood obesity prevention program. He said it is also important to take their child to a pediatrician if the child is showing signs of developing an eating disorder.
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