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Send my your tired, your poor....Growth Charts

Posted Dec 03 2011 10:32am
I'm preparing a presentation to a group of pediatricians, arguing several points:

So, I need some help from you all? I want to ask you for your child's growth curve chart. Even if it is spotty, I want to collect enough of these charts (taking all identifying information off, of course) to illustrate that children's mental health problems with eating correspond to changes in their growth percentiles. As far as I know, and I've looked, no one has made this kind of information available. I will collect these and publish them on the F.E.A.S.T. site along with other supporting information. Most pediatricians are still thinking that a child has to lose weight to have an eating disorder when really the first sign is a failure to grow as expected. Most pediatricians still believe that a child who has always been at the 80th percentile for growth "would be healthier" if they dropped to the 50th. Many still believe that eating disorders are just a weight issue, and that eating disorders are just a measure of dangerous weight loss/purging.

I believe if I could gather enough of these charts, we could change practice around the world. Will you help me?
If you have a chart plotted already, please send it to me. Mark on it when your child's mental symptoms appeared or skyrocketed, and where they abated or receded entirely. If you have not done so, please take all the weight/height data you have and plot it, or send it to me and I'll have someone plot it. Here is the chart to use: Lifetime Growth Chart:  For girls up to 20      For boys up to 20 Not just anorexia, by the way: patients with bulimia and BED and all forms of EDNOS as well. Do not think that your loved one's chart doesn't matter. If it DOESN'T show a pattern in this way it is still important. If your child had a lag between weight restoration and symptoms, that's important.
I'm tired of waiting around for researchers to establish what parents here already know. And maybe we're wrong! Let's figure it out.
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