Give me Five for Kids xx

Is it just me or does everyone feel very lucky to have healthy kids?

I know we’re only at day 2 of Mix FM’s Give Me Five for Kids but every time I spend time in the children’s ward – I get fired up again to make Give Me Five bigger and better.

Yesterday I spent time with Jo and her three beautiful baby girls. Four year old Kaitlin, 3 year old Jade and Zoe the delicious 6 month old baby.

Jade, who has the prettiest eyes and cupie doll face you are ever likely to see, has an undiagnosed condition that leaves her unable to sit, speak or even swallow. Her chest fills with fluid constantly and every now and then, inexplicably, her organs shut down…

Jo and her husband have a hell of a job with their girls. More than two hundred nights in hospital in the past couple of years…most of those nights with the whole family in tow.

Jade’s condition is undiagnosed. The experts think she might have invented it herself - probably in utero – it doesn’t come from either side of the family and she has never tested positive for a known condition - she’s just a baby in a million.

On one hand, it's completely heartbreaking....one the other, Jo is the head of a warm, generous, positive family, putting love into action every day.

Then, just when you think you’ve seen it all, yesterday I also met a gorgeous little 10 year old with an eating disorder. Seriously.

Her devoted parents are lost for answers. They didn't see it coming and they don't know how to fix it. They just can't stop crying.

I wrote recently about the growing incidence of Anorexia in teens. Stand by for the tweens.

Just because of the little girl I met yesterday, I decided to see how common anorexia was in one so young...there's heaps of stuff on the net...but I'll leave you with this...


Statistics from Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies
Source: Body Wars: Making Peace with Women’s Bodies,by Margo Maine, Ph.D., Gürze Books, 2000
· 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
· 45% of boys and girls in grades 3-6 want to be thinner
· 37% have already dieted
· 6.9% score in the ED range
· 51% of 9-10 year old girls feel better about selves when dieting
· 9% of 9 year old have vomited to lose weight
· 81% of 10 year old are afraid of being fat
· 53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies
· 78% of 18 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies