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Boyse, K. (2010, October). Eating Disorders: What Families Need to Know. //Your Child Development and Behavior Resources//. Retrieved August 6, 2012, from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/eatdis.htm


 * 1) Dieting is a risk factor, with the greatest risk to severe dieters. Around two-thirds of new cases of eating disorder are in girls and women who have dieted.
 * 2) Eating disorders can cause many dangerous medical and mental illnesses, including malnutrition, heart problems, and kidney failures.
 * 3) Most kids and teens do not need a restrictive diet. Limiting eating to control weight not only doesn’t work, but in fact, dieting promotes weight gain in tweens and teens. Reading dieting advice in magazines may lead to later unhealthy weight loss behavior in girls.
 * 4) Anorexia usually affects teens, and mostly girls. An estimated 1% of white females have anorexia nervosa. It is more common among people in higher income groups, and in groups that value thinness (like athletes, ballet dancers and models).
 * 5) A person who has an eating disorder is not always skinny. Some people with eating disorders are even overweight.
 * 6) Poor parenting by both mothers and fathers has been implicated in eating disorders. One study found that 40% of 9- and 10-year-old girls trying to lose weight generally did so with the urging of their mothers.
 * 7) It is estimated that as much as 3% of college-aged women have bulimia.
 * 8) Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa cause dramatic weight fluctuation, interfere with normal daily life, and can permanently affect their health.
 * 9) Eating disorders can easily get out of hand and are difficult habits to break. Eating disorders are serious clinical problems that require professional treatment by doctors, therapists, and nutritionists.
 * 10) Limiting eating to control weight not only doesn’t work, but in fact, dieting promotes weight gain in tweens and teens. Reading dieting advice in magazines may lead to later unhealthy weight loss behavior in girls.
 * 11) Most celebrities in advertising, movies, TV, and sports programs are very thin, and this may lead girls to think that the ideal of beauty is extreme thinness.
 * 12) Many kids who develop an eating disorder have low self-esteem and their focus on weight can be an attempt to gain a sense of control at a time when their lives feel more out-of-control.
 * 13) Most kids with eating disorders began their disordered eating between the ages of 11 and 13.
 * 14) Boys, too, may try to emulate a media ideal by drastically restricting their eating and compulsively exercising to build muscle mass.
 * 15) Problems at home can put kids at higher risk of problem eating behaviors.