Why do so many children in foster care or adopted through older child adoption programs suffer from eating disorders? The psychological factors that have been found to contribute to eating disorders fit the profile of almost every child in the foster care system or residing in an orphanage world wide. Factors that can contribute to an eating disorder include low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, anger, loneliness and feelings of inadequacy or lack of control. These factors can be a result of troubled family relationships, a history of physical, sexual, or verbal abuse, and difficulty expressing emotions and feelings.

There are cultural pressures to look a certain way, which can affect children when they begin realizing what the world considers attractive, which cause eating disorders. However, I don’t believe that is the major cause of eating disorders in the children we parent through older child adoption. If you think about it, they wouldn’t have ended up in foster care or an orphanage if they didn’t have troubled family relationships. What could be worse for a child’s self-esteem than being separated or abandoned by your very own family? Irregardless of circumstances, children tend to blame themselves for problems within their family so it has to be depressing to feel responsible for loosing your own family.

Children in these situations often feel powerless, like they have no control over what is happening in their lives. So they often use the control of food to compensate for feelings and emotions that seem overwhelming. Dieting, bingeing, and purging may start off as a way of coping with hurtful emotions and to feel in control of one’s life, but ultimately, they damage a person’s physical and emotional health. Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening illnesses but with help people can recover and learn positive ways to seek approval and acceptance.
You should watch at risk children for frequent trips to the bathroom immediately following or during meals, unexplained hair loss, a pale or "grey" appearance to their skin. Bruised or calluses knuckles caused from sticking the hand in the throat to purge should be considered a warning sign. Other warning signs are bloodshot or bleeding in the eyes or light bruising under the eyes and on the cheeks, insomnia, mood swings, depression and fatigue.

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