A single approach can prevent obesity, eating disorders in teens

A single approach can prevent both obesity and eating disorders in teenagers, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Scientific evidence summarized in the new recommendations shows that physicians and parents can ward off problems at both ends of the weight spectrum by avoiding focusing teens'' attention on weight or dieting, and instead encouraging a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

The guidelines, which were published online in Pediatrics, were developed in response to growing concern about teenagers'' use of unhealthy methods to lose weight. Teens who use these methods may not fit doctors' or parents' image of eatingdisorder patients, since most are not excessively thin. However, their quick, substantial weight loss can trigger medical consequences seen in people with anorexia nervosa, such as an unstable heart rate.

"This is a dangerous category of patient because they’re often missed by physicians," said Neville Golden, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a lead author of the new guidelines. "At some point, these patients may have had a real need to lose weight, but things got out of control."

Negative comments about weight can also be detrimental to a teen’s health, Golden said. "Mothers who talk about their own bodies and weights can inadvertently encourage their kids to have body dissatisfaction, which we see in half of teen girls and a quarter of boys," Golden said. Family meals, on the other hand, protect against weight problems.