Childhood obesity: global issues

The eating disorders are a group of situations which are very complex that include abnormal feeding patterns, too much worry about the physical aspect, no real perception of the body image and a strong link between all these factors and the levels of self-esteem (Fairburn & Harrison 2003, Sigel 2008, American Academy of Pediatrics 2010, Dalle Grave 2011). From the '50s of the previous century we had a continuous increase of the Eating Disorders (Dalle Grave 2011). Indeed, in the National Program of the Prevention is stated that: "The spread of the eating disorders is very fast and relevant; there is no other disease with the same propagation and that looks like a real social epidemic" (The Ministry of Health 2010). At the same time, there was a reduction of the time of onset (Favaro et al. 2009) with cases of girls 8/9 years old, before having their first period (Dalla Ragione 2012). This means that the pediatricians should pay more attention to the eating disorders because there is a big delay in the diagnosis that can have a negative impact on the therapy to apply and on the prognosis (American Academy of Pediatrics 2010). Overweight and eating disorders are the main problems of public health among adolescents and many works show a direct link between eating disorders and child obesity (Babio et al. 2009). In the case of children, the diagnosis is very complex, especially during the early adolescence (-12 years) due to the large heterogeneity of the somatic expressions that make difficult a precise nosographic study. Therefore, it is necessary that the pediatrician has a good knowledge about the eating disorders in order to identify them quickly and to start a multidisciplinary path and to promote an improvement in the long term.