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Kim Zarzour

Yorkregion.com
Date Published: Thursday, February 25, 2010
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The girls look confident and casual with their hoodies, salt-stained Ugg boots and frequent guffaws of laughter. No body image issues here — or so it seems. But dig under the surface and you’ll see the pre-pubescent girls are already struggling.
Like most Canadian pre-teens, they face the mirror every morning with a critical eye.
Are their clothes up to snuff? Will the hair and shoes and attitude pass muster with the popular kids at school? What about that roll of “fat” around the waist? The legs ­— too big? Lips — too thin?
In this media-laden world, looks are very important and it starts young — around Grade 5, according to students in the Girls Inc. club at Walter Scott Public School.
“Girls want to impress the guys, but you want to impress the girls too, because if someone wears expensive clothes and works out and looks good, you want to try to be friends with them,” explains Grade 7 student Kirsten Mosey.
“If the popular kid wears expensive clothes, you want to get expensive clothes too, even if you can’t afford it,” adds Santhu Shankar.
The girls here realize this is not a good thing, but they seem at a loss to prevent it.
Which is where a new initiative by Eating Disorders of York Region comes in.
The not-for-profit group has expanded its programming to reach younger students before they succumb to body image pressure.
Simply warning kids about the dangers of image obsession isn’t good enough, says Janice Morgante, the group’s director. With eating disorders affecting boys and girls at younger ages, help needs to be easily accessible and needs to start before problems begin.
Experts are worried by what they see as an increase in the number and severity of eating disorders in youth and as the problem moves into younger age groups, the potential of more serious long-term effects.
At the recent Girls Inc. “Peersuasion” class, a school lunchtime program, students talk freely about the pressures. They discuss how they feel when they view their reflection; it’s obvious they view it often, not just in mirrors but in ever-present video cameras, webcams, cell-phone and Facebook images.
Kids today have an obsession with looks, says youth co-ordinator and workshop leader Nikki Kastelic.
Grade 7 student Katie DeGeer says “distinctions” begin showing up around Grade 5 or 6. That’s when the best-looking kids become the popular ones and the unsure and not “beautiful” are left on the outside.
In this comfortable female-only lunch club, the girls are gigglingly quick to point out ways they don’t measure up, from legs (too fat) to nostrils (too small).
“That’s so not worth worrying about. Like, truly, not even sort of,” Ms Kastelic tells one girl pointing out a worrisome waistline. “Expecially since you’re in sports. Really!”
She assures the girls that it’s fine to have cake or chips on occasion. “Everything in moderation,” she says.
The girls discuss their dislike for eating in front of others and explore the difference between a boy’s genuine compliment “you’ve got beautiful eyes” and one that does not make them feel good, like “nice butt”.
It’s the second year of Girls Inc. working with York Region schools to encourage girls to learn healthy ways to manage stress and confront peer and media pressure.
Lyn Thompson-Alcock, the organization’s executive director, understands how important it is to empower girls. Her sister struggled with an eating disorder nearly 30 years ago.
She’d always been a tiny thing, Ms Thompson-Alcock remembers, just 4’11” and 110 lbs. She bought her clothes at the children’s department and her boyfriend liked to compare her to a little doll.
The family suspected something was up when she started disappearing after dinner for about 20 minutes.
“We knew she was in there throwing up and we’d try to get her out somehow.”
From threats to pleading, nothing worked.
When her health faltered, she had to be hospitalized. With no beds or counseling programs available, “they just pumped her full of fluids with an IV” until she rallied, then released her again.
Finally, in her late 20s, Ms Thompson-Alcock’s sister reached the end of her battle with food. She died in 1989.
Much has changed since then. Eating disorders are recognized as a mental illness and hospitals such as Southlake have programs dedicated to its treatment. But beds and counseling are just Band-Aids, she says.
“We want to be targeting the 9 to 11 age group. That’s really where we’re seeing things start, when school and science and math aren’t important anymore, they’re just interested in being pretty.”
Boys aren’t immune to body image pressure, says Dr. Daniel Javitz, a Thornhill chiropractor and a guest speaker with Eating Disorders of York Region.  
“Pressures on guys can actually be quite big — financial status, appearance ... dating stress ... If you don’t look like a model, and you don’t have a lot of money so you can’t buy all the toys, then what’s left? Your body. You try everything you can for the symmetrical body, perfect abs, perfect chest.
“You get in that feedback loop. You start getting attention, the compliments, girls start to notice you, next thing you know you can’t get any bigger because it’s not supported by your genes.”
That’s when, he says, some males move to unhealthy supplements and steroids.
At Southlake’s Eating Disorder Program, team leader Jill Fraleigh says one in 10 patients are male, but that’s changing as doctors start looking for the signs — often binging and purging tied to sports or anxiety.
And with both boys and girls, marketing and media are key factors, she says.
Merryl Bear, director of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre, agrees. “They’re getting that message that there’s one single ideal they must live up to.”  
To counteract that, the centre has a new petition that takes aim at the fashion and marketing industries’ use of air-brushed and photo-shopped images. It’s garnered a huge response worldwide, but the stigma remains, Ms Bear says.
Parents feel “enormous guilt”, believing they are to blame. In fact, she says, parents are key to helping patients recover. Eating disorders are complex but experts say prevention is key. Here’s what parents can do:
• Eat with your children — Studies link an increase in family dinners to a decrease in extreme weight loss behaviours.
• Listen — Encourage your children to talk about their emotions.
• Ease off the pressure — Parental criticism of a child’s weight is linked to increased rates of extreme dieting among youth.
• Promote self-esteem — Compliment your child’s abilities, not physical attributes.
• Focus on balance — Don’t refer to food as good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. Make use of Canada’s Food Guide and encourage physical activity.
• Consult an expert if you see warning signs: excessive concern about weight, shape and calorie intake; unusual mood changes; change in weight; rigid exercise regimes; avoidance of certain foods; halt in menstruation.

• Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket has a program open to individuals 13 to 18 who live in York Region and are referred by a physician. For information, contact www.southlakeregional.org or 905-895-4521.

• Eating Disorders of York Region offers support groups for individuals, families and friends. For information, call 905-886-6632 or visit www.edoyr.com

• Girls Inc. of York Region is a non-profit organization offering help for girls 4-18 and their families. Visit www.girlsincyork.org or call 905-830-0776.