For the longest time, Amy’s mother didn’t think there was
anything wrong with her daughter needing to go to the bathroom
every time right after meals. Her youngest had trouble with a
“nervous stomach,” as she called it, for as long as she could
remember. Eventually, though, she became concerned with her
child’s weight. At the age of 11, Amy was five feet tall but
weighed less than 60 pounds. “All the popular kids in her class
are super thin,” she told me when we first met for a
consultation at my practice. “It’s the look they see and adore
on TV and the Internet.” Dieting for looks is not unusual among
young girls. The message that “you can’t be too thin” is
conveyed to all of us by the media. But because children are far
more impressionable than adults, they tend to take these beliefs
much more to heart and act accordingly. Peer pressure, the
desire to live up to certain fashion standards as well as body
changes during the early stages of puberty are all well-known
factors that can contribute to the developm