Children Diet To Keep Off Pounds And Ward Off Bullying, Survey Says

A recent survey of 1,500 of children between ages 7 and 18 revealed that young teens diet and worry about their weight.

About 44 percent of children between the ages of 11 and 13 say they've been bullied because of their weight, and more than 40 percent of kids younger than 10 admitted they were concerned about packing on the pounds, with nearly one-fourth reporting having been on a diet in the last year, according to the Press Association.

Results also highlight that a majority of participants are aware of several unhealthy weight-loss methods, such as using laxatives, throwing up, administering a regular diet and visiting anorexia websites.

The dieting survey was conducted by online companies Onepoll and Youngpoll for the television special "Dying to Be Thin: Tonight," which explored health topics such as eating disorders and children's attitudes toward food.

Sadly, dieting is among a variety of other extreme methods some adolescents are taking to avoid being tormented by their peers.

Last year, 13-year-old Nicolette Taylor resorted to plastic surgery to escape harassment and name-calling, particularly on social networking sites such as Facebook.

"All my friends could see [my nose], all my new friends, and I didn't want them saying things," Taylor told Nightline about her decision to get a nose job. "Gossip goes around, and it really hurts."

Other teens have felt suicide was their only way to escape daily scrutiny about their appearance or sexuality.

Although adolescents get picked on for a variety of reasons, weight is the top reason children are bullied at school, Yahoo! Shine reports.

And according to Rebecca Puhl, Director of Research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy at Yale University, a new ad campaign in Georgia is only "perpetua[ting] negative stereotypes."

The ads, which aim to curb childhood obesity rates, feature photos of overweight children accompanied by text, such as "WARNING: It's hard to be a little girl if you're not."

Campaign supporters say the ads educate parents with the harsh reality they need to become aware of the rising obesity rate among children, but others say the ads only shame children for their size.

"We need to fight obesity, not obese people," Marsha Davis, a childhood obesity prevention researcher, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Comments

[Katja Rowell]

05:56 PM on 01/11/2012

I think this is a huge problem, and is often "school sanctioned," particularly now with the war on childhood obesity. Here are some excerpts from ACTUAL kids' essays in St Paul about their no-sweet zone wellness policy, health and weight.

"I think it is a good thing that kids shouldn’t eat junk because if they eat too much people would say mean things about their body or how they look."

"You would be ahead of everyone that was making fun of you. But don’t eat it everyday, because then you are back to what you were before."

"Maybe you think the school shouldn’t control what you eat but you can just stuff your selves with junk when you get home; the only person you’ll be hurting is yourself. I hope you appreciate the maybe dumb sounding rules more now. I sure do!"

These quotes show a whole lot of half-truths, victim-blaming and bullying. The fact that these essays were put up as support for the program shows a huge disconnect on the part of the school district. Bullying is out of control, it is NOT ok, and we need to address the bullies, not the kids who are big. As a family doctor and childhood feeding specialist helping families with feeding and weight concerns, bullying, body-shaming (I mean you Georgia) makes kids less healthy. More likely to diet, practice disordered eating, depressed, oh, and heavier... There is a better way.

[Djay0252]

12:51 PM on 01/09/2012

I really get sick and tired of the word dieting. It insinuates that it is a tempoary thing and they will go right back to eating unhealthy when the diet is completed...which most do. Eating healthy and altering your diet is the right way to look at it and the right way to go. Keep it healthy ALWAYS. As for bullying...they learn what they see at home.

[Sir Alto]

10:03 AM on 01/09/2012

i just love(sarcasm) how the pepole who run the school systems and this forsaken soicety put a blind eye to things like this allowing to exscilate to things like Calimbine and every other school shooting. The so called illiegality of bullying doesnt do anything to stop it from happening. What pepole need to do is stop being so fixated on petty diffrences in this mornoic way of thinking and realize that thats what make great pepole great.
I weep for humanity

[petben]

04:26 PM on 01/09/2012

I weep for our education system after reading that.

[rrickarr]

05:38 PM on 01/07/2012

I do not understand why schools do not implement a 0-tolerance for bullying for any reason. No student should be bullied, school should be a safe environment for every child. I taught in an international school in Europe and a boy bullied another student, the director of the school has that bully out of the school immediately. And yes, his parents came a cried, but it was no use--he was gone. We respected the Director for dealing with it immediately.

[LitDr2B]

03:51 PM on 01/08/2012

"Zero-tolerance" policies can often be foolish and have unintended consequences. For example, my daughter's elementary school had such a policy, and when (in 4th grade) she was cornered in the girl's bathroom by a "bully," and tried to get out by pushing her way past the girl who had her blocked, both girls were taken into the principal's office and were threatened with equal punishment.

The policy did not allow defending yourself in any way. The school handbook said that if you were being physically attacked, to get on the ground facedown, and cover the back of your neck with your arms.

I agree that something must be done, but when you punish the victim for defending him/herself, that is absolutely ridiculous.

[rrickarr]

04:14 PM on 01/08/2012

Well this is the stupidity of that school. One would not expect your daughter to lie face down in the bathroom. But because one school (and plenty more I'm sure) get it wrong...one should not scrap it. Parents should get down there and do something about it.

I am often amused how parents lets schools get away with stupidity like this but if a teacher says something to a child or gives the wrong grade---parents will be up at the school immediately. (I am NOT saying this about you or your school but I notice it in a lot of other schools).

SO get the zero-tolerance policy re-written.

[xhawk2]

05:30 PM on 01/07/2012

And they don't think they'll be bullied again for being stick-thin?

[Jerry Lammers]

11:01 AM on 01/06/2012

If you want your children to avoid bullying, Home School them.

[BrendaNYC]

08:16 AM on 01/06/2012

How does a 13 year old get plastic surgery without a parent's consent and money? How does a child take laxatives and diet without a parent knowing? I'm sure it can happen, but that suggests a very sneaky kid. I worry that we are focusing far too much on the external (aka "bullies") and not about the fragility and/or parenting of our children. Bullying has always existed (even before Facebook) and for some reason, children are (being reported to be) much less resilient today. This is a very serious situation. I natter more on it here: http://heresheisboys.com/2012/01/04/a-bully-plan/

[Erin Erlinger]

11:37 AM on 01/16/2012

having been a 13 year old bulimic TRUST ME, there are PLENTY of times no one is looking. all it took for me was an unsupervised trip to the bathroom....i never binged just purged to lose weight so no one suspected a thing until i was 17 and losing my hair because of it. i DID diet without my folks knowing. they only really saw me eat dinner. it was easy to skip lunch at school, and no one was awake enough to notice i would take food and then throw it away for breakfast.

[LivelyLexie]

08:15 AM on 01/06/2012

It's sad that kids can't just be kids anymore. I didn't really think about my looks or weight (granted, I never had a weight problem) until I was a teenager.

[GraphicMatt]

02:54 PM on 01/09/2012

Lexie, when we were kids we actually went outside and played. Fewer of our classmates had weight issues because we all weren't sitting inside playing video games and growing lazy.

[LivelyLexie]

03:11 PM on 01/09/2012

Truth! I was outside from the time I finished homework to the time the sun went down. Parents need to be more involved in their kids' activities.

[James Wilk]

07:57 AM on 01/06/2012

While bullying needs to stop immediately, the dieting should not. We live in a country with an enormous obesity problem. New research indicates 31% of American kids are obese by age 9 MONTHS and 34% by age 2 years:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21192749?dopt=Abstract

[Bombastic1892]

11:15 AM on 01/06/2012

"dieting" should stop. People should teach their kids healthy eating "habits", and make it a consistent thing.

[laurenproof12]

12:01 PM on 01/06/2012

I think people just call it dieting (including who wrote the article) becuase they don't understand that its a lifestyle.

[petben]

04:30 PM on 01/09/2012

Exactly. Dieting is a stupid word. People need to have lifestyle changes - permanently.

[Lady Saera]

03:22 AM on 01/06/2012

Its about the bullying, healthy eating is a good thing we all know that, its teaching those bullies to stop, most of them have a problem and its really getting bad..there are no consequences, and there should be, bullies are ignorant.

[Bernie Fine]

03:22 AM on 01/06/2012

Good. This will mean less fat, sloppy adults who lack self-discipline and self-respect. Kids should be aware of what they eat and regulate the pollution they're given by adults. Letting your child drink Kool Aid b/c "it's part of being a kid" is absurd. It's pure sugar w/zero nutritional benefit. Taking a dump in your shorts is part of being a kid too. Do you encourage that?

[elaine tomkinson]

02:43 AM on 01/06/2012

Is this surprising to anyone? The media has hyped up obesity so much - its in the news and all over the place all the time....these kids read about it, hear about it in school, their parents talk about it - we act like being a little heavy is the most awful thing in the whole world and we teach our kids the same --- so of course kids what to fit in so they try to diet...

[laurenproof12]

12:03 PM on 01/06/2012

Do you really think that being heavy isn't unhealthy and isn't a REAL problem in our country? Obesity is seriously an issue that needs to be fix, the sooner the better. People like you really break my heart, OKing people to be unhealthy, its EXACTLY what's wrong with this country. "Oh its not that bad..."

[elaine tomkinson]

03:15 PM on 01/06/2012

I think its very easy to overdo it too........to tell kids that being heavy is not healthy is one thing - to act like its horrible and the worse thing ever is different...kids pick up on these kinds of signs and then they start having eating problems...

[Bianca S]

02:49 AM on 01/07/2012

"A little heavy"? Nice euphemism. Considering almost half of the population, including children, is already overweight and/or obese and getting fatter, I don't think parents are teaching their kids anything about good eating habits. Being obese *can* be an awful thing as it directly links to incrased health problems and early mortality, is this what you want to teach your kids?

[elaine tomkinson]

10:35 AM on 01/07/2012

NO what I want is for every child to feel good about themselves.......to feel they have value in our society no matter what size they are.......to feel they have a chance at a good life - no matter what size they are....... And for adults to quit attacking the child under the fat.........

[Erin Erlinger]

11:39 AM on 01/16/2012

actually the obesity rates leveled off in 1999.

[Warhammer Jones]

12:03 AM on 01/06/2012

You'd think with all those anorexics and bulimics the media always tells me are out there, we wouldn't have such an obesity epidemic in the United States.

[rewith85man]

10:52 PM on 01/05/2012

Meanwhile, bullies are at McDonald's...

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

10:26 PM on 01/05/2012

I figured this would happen at some point, with kids going through puberty at earlier ages. However, weight is only one thing that kids can be bullied for, only a part of one big thing called BEING DIFFERENT. I should know, I was bullied in high school just because I wasn't a stereotypical black girl; I'm bi-racial, I love reading, and at the time I was being bullied I was getting into rock music instead of listening to rap and r& B.

[rewith85man]

10:54 PM on 01/05/2012

Follow your heart and do not listen to ignorant people.