Hope for the future and raising children. Eating disorders are affecting younger and younger children so inspiring thoughts and ideas about how to deal with children is always good. 

Deborah Fields

Childhood is now often being overshadowed for ever younger children by nutritional problems. The roller coaster that now surrounds the topic of children’s eating habits such as mixed messages from the media. With this it is hardly surprising that parents can be confused as how to best feed their children. 

We now live in a time when the two most common childhood illnesses are no longer cold or flu, rather obesity and eating disorders. Instead of being free to live life as children, some as young as 5 are consumed with body image, food and weight anxieties. 

Where obesity came first and much attention has been placed on the problems with childhood obesity and the health problems it can cause later in life, it is eating disorders which are by nature more deadly. 

Health professionals who look at children with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia say that many of origins of the eating disorders can come from a bad environment around food or even a comment such as telling a child to be more “healthy” or to “get into shape” can be the beginning of a problem with food. 

Living in a time when this is a major problem it is important that parents are able to navigate children’s nutritional needs in a simpler fashion, and also have the necessary tools available to them for when there are problems so that they can help them get through it. 

Original article from: http://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/hope-for-the-future