Families need to know much more

Health experts said they were spotting cases of eating disorders through “sheer coincidence”, because parents do not know enough about the symptoms.

Ayla Coussa, clinical dietitian at Fakih IVF in Dubai, said that mothers brought their daughters to her because they were worried that their child was losing weight, was stressed or had a thyroid problem.

“They have very poor awareness about eating disorders. People come to dietitians asking to lose weight when they don’t need to lose weight,” Ms Coussa said.

“We start asking questions and digging more and we find that people are starving themselves. If the patient is losing weight, the parent will get them help. But they don’t know the child has an eating disorder.”

She said she rarely had referrals from doctors.

Many women in the Middle East want to lose weight before weddings or events and go on detox diets, Ms Coussa said.

“Many obese people also have anorexia because they think they need to starve to lose weight but in days they compensate because they are depressed,” she said.

Sometimes people visit Ms Coussa with friends or family members, but because of this they lie about their problem.

Lina Doumani, a clinical dietitian and expert on eating disorders at Camali Clinic in Dubai, believes families and friends play a crucial role in detecting a problem.

“As soon as a parent notices warning signs – like the child being withdrawn, not sitting with them at meals, being isolated, never hungry or suddenly turning vegetarian or eating only one kind of food, or even delving into high-intensity exercise – they should approach a psychiatrist and check for eating disorders,” she said.