- Mar 25, 2012
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Weight awareness is not something to take lightly, sorry I just couldn't help myself, as there is a direct connection to strength/weight ratios and injuries. I think that while weight can become an issue surrounding a child's progress and safety, there's no benefit in telling a child they're gaining weight and need to be more mindful of their diet. That's an issue for parent to consider, as well as how to, or not, work as a family to promote healthy meals and snacks.
I had the good fortune to have a team kid's parent who was both a practicing pediatrician and researcher focused on the effect of how the human body responds to food as, and after, it's consumed. He volunteered to work from top to bottom with the parents and then with the kids. His point was not that they needed to lose weight, but that they eat the right foods the right way, and whatever came from that was the way it should be for them, as they were all different from one another, and always would be.
It worked quite well and I'd jump at the chance to have someone with his qualifications and generosity work with any group and any child, because thick or thin, they all need fundamentally sound nutrition.
I know the discussion from the previous posts aren't centered as much on eating disorders as they are on self image and the effects of coaches purposefully, or ignorantly and unwittingly meddling with their gymnast's minds. With respect to eating disorders.......
I'm no authority on the subject but have a keen interest in these disorders as twenty year old member of my extended family has struggled with one since age 15. I learned a few things about the subject from her experience and the experiences of two friends, one close.... one not so much, who work as therapist/counselors in a residential rehab/treatment center.
Both of these people have told me anorexia is not just about body weight and image, and that control over their food, themselves, and others who seek to control them are components of the disease as well. The impression I have from both of them is that their patients view food choices as their one last stand to do something that matters to them that they can control. Sure they're worried about gaining weight, but in a dimension entirely different than an ordinary person on an over the top diet.
One of these therapists is quite thin, but healthy and eating well, and when I heard that part of her job was to share meal time with her group it struck me that these kids were thinking that finally there's someone around here that "gets it." When I asked her if she seemed more credible, for being thin, she shrugged the idea off and said something to the effect that it's not about being thin, it's about the food, and the process of manipulating food...... I guess thin is how they measure their success in other areas..... like thin tells them they did the food thing right, rather than thin being a state of beauty or a means of gaining approval.
I also learned that true anorexia, as opposed to just over doing a strict diet, is a hereditary brain disorder, and if not genetically predisposed, it's not possible to develop anorexia beyond eating too little and saying whoops, I think I went too far. Not that getting to the point of whoops is insignificant, just that it's no more a battle than figuring out how little is too little, and how much is just right.. People with the real deal anorexia, from genetic factors, will not say whoops I went to far, and they'll more likely attribute their fatigue, fainting, and heart palpitations to something they're doing wrong with their food manipulations, like eating the wrong thing, or too much of another thing, anything but eating too little.
You can probably relax if you're concerned that your child has been exposed to a "thin is in" culture, and is about to go off the deep end to full blown clinical anorexia. It's hereditary, so if it's not in the family's history, it's extremely unlikely the child could get it if they tried. Sure, educate yourselves (don't take my word for it) and keep watch over your children and help them understand what a healthy diet is, and what it can do for the common person, as well as the athlete.
I had the good fortune to have a team kid's parent who was both a practicing pediatrician and researcher focused on the effect of how the human body responds to food as, and after, it's consumed. He volunteered to work from top to bottom with the parents and then with the kids. His point was not that they needed to lose weight, but that they eat the right foods the right way, and whatever came from that was the way it should be for them, as they were all different from one another, and always would be.
It worked quite well and I'd jump at the chance to have someone with his qualifications and generosity work with any group and any child, because thick or thin, they all need fundamentally sound nutrition.
I know the discussion from the previous posts aren't centered as much on eating disorders as they are on self image and the effects of coaches purposefully, or ignorantly and unwittingly meddling with their gymnast's minds. With respect to eating disorders.......
I'm no authority on the subject but have a keen interest in these disorders as twenty year old member of my extended family has struggled with one since age 15. I learned a few things about the subject from her experience and the experiences of two friends, one close.... one not so much, who work as therapist/counselors in a residential rehab/treatment center.
Both of these people have told me anorexia is not just about body weight and image, and that control over their food, themselves, and others who seek to control them are components of the disease as well. The impression I have from both of them is that their patients view food choices as their one last stand to do something that matters to them that they can control. Sure they're worried about gaining weight, but in a dimension entirely different than an ordinary person on an over the top diet.
One of these therapists is quite thin, but healthy and eating well, and when I heard that part of her job was to share meal time with her group it struck me that these kids were thinking that finally there's someone around here that "gets it." When I asked her if she seemed more credible, for being thin, she shrugged the idea off and said something to the effect that it's not about being thin, it's about the food, and the process of manipulating food...... I guess thin is how they measure their success in other areas..... like thin tells them they did the food thing right, rather than thin being a state of beauty or a means of gaining approval.
I also learned that true anorexia, as opposed to just over doing a strict diet, is a hereditary brain disorder, and if not genetically predisposed, it's not possible to develop anorexia beyond eating too little and saying whoops, I think I went too far. Not that getting to the point of whoops is insignificant, just that it's no more a battle than figuring out how little is too little, and how much is just right.. People with the real deal anorexia, from genetic factors, will not say whoops I went to far, and they'll more likely attribute their fatigue, fainting, and heart palpitations to something they're doing wrong with their food manipulations, like eating the wrong thing, or too much of another thing, anything but eating too little.
You can probably relax if you're concerned that your child has been exposed to a "thin is in" culture, and is about to go off the deep end to full blown clinical anorexia. It's hereditary, so if it's not in the family's history, it's extremely unlikely the child could get it if they tried. Sure, educate yourselves (don't take my word for it) and keep watch over your children and help them understand what a healthy diet is, and what it can do for the common person, as well as the athlete.
