More NI children with anorexia

The study, which looked at cases of anorexia diagnosed by psychiatrists in hospitals or specialist clinics, estimates that 3.2 per 100,000 children aged between eight and 12 met criteria for anorexia for the first time in 2015, compared with 1.5 to 2.1 per 100,000 in 2006.

The research follows reports of a doubling in hospital admissions for eating disorders in the past six years, with the surge driven by an uptick in cases among teenage girls and women in their early 20s.

Ann McCann, director of Eating Disorders Association NI, a charity she established in 1992 after a young family member developed anorexia, said when she started the group it was ‘‘quite rare’’ to get calls about (usually) girls under 14 or 15.

‘‘Now we would quite regularly get calls from families whose children are under 10. That’s something that has happened over the last few years.’’

She believes social media could be contributing to the increasing incidence of eating disorders in children.

‘‘I think there is much more emphasis now on how young people look and what size they are; they see skinny as the ultimate goal.’’

Mrs McCann said eating disorders impact on the whole family.

‘‘Parents start to question if it was something they have done or said. I take support groups for parents, and mothers, in particular, feel very guilty when their daughters have ended up with an eating disorder; they think it’s something they should have foreseen and they should have been able to nip in the bud.

‘‘Nourishing your children is something that mothers feel 100% responsible for.”

Mrs McCann said a lot of young women the charity sees have developed an eating disorder around exam time.

‘‘It maybe happens when they are doing their GCSEs and many of them who would be potentially A* students and should be flying through their exams, can’t complete their exams because it (the eating disorder) really does impact on their concentration.’’

She added: ‘‘A young person with anorexia, it’s not just their weight that starts to change, their whole demeanour changes – the happiness goes, they have this very scared look about them.

‘‘We do school workshops around body image and self-confidence. Parents will sometimes say that it was the school that picked up that their child had a problem, maybe a friend will tell a teacher or they’ll see that their grades are going down quite dramatically.’’

l The Eating Disorder Association NI can be contacted on 028 9023 5959.