Eating disorders have become a rising epidemic among young athletes. In an effort to improve their performance, many young athletes become extremely health conscious, carefully monitoring what they are putting in their mouths. While a healthy diet is certainly a good thing, it is important to keep an eye on your young athletes to ensure that they don't take the idea of dieting to an extreme in an effort to achieve and certain weight or body type and develop an eating disorder.

One huge reason that kids under age 10 are so much more aware of body image today than ever before is because they have been immersed in the world of sports and athletics since they were old enough to walk. The average age today for kids to start sports is age 6, whereas for our generation it wasn't until around age 12.

Athletes are at significantly greater risk when participating in sports where a lean body is critical, such as gymnasts, ballet dancers, figure skaters, long-distance runners, divers, and synchronized swimmers. The incidence of eating disorders in young female athletes has been estimated at 62%, compared to 3% in the general population of girls. Eating disorders are also found in male athletes, especially those in weight-driven sports such as wrestling.

Watch out for sports where coaches demand weight loss or make team decisions based on weight. If a coach suggests your child lose weight in order to increase her performance, as is likely at higher levels of competition, your child may become obsessed with weight loss and pursue it with the same intensity and perseverance that makes her so successful in the sport.

Athletes who have a close relative diagnosed with an eating disorder are 50% more likely to develop one than are athletes with no family history of the disease.

Anorexia strikes young women who use excessive measures to maintain a thin and girlish figure to stay competitive in a sport. For these girls, the onset of puberty is their biggest fear because it means developing hips and breasts that might hinder their performance. Many coaches fuel the development of anorexia and other eating disorder by instructing girls on how to count calories, avoid certain foods, and even recommending outright that they should lose some weight.

Over the past thirty years in gymnastics, elite gymnasts have become significantly smaller in both body weight and size. In the past two decades, the average size of the Indian team has declined from 5'3", 105 pounds to 4'9", 88 pounds. If your child's body is not that of a slim, petite Olympic gymnast, make sure she doesn't attempt to emulate this image by not eating enough.

Even at young ages, children become acutely aware of who the good athletes are and what physical attributes contribute to their success. Pressure to succeed in muscularity-dependent sports like track or swimming can sometimes lead to steroid use in order to enhance already good performance or compensate for real or imagined flaws. In sports like gymnastics, figure skating, ballet, dance, and diving, slimness is still at a premium, and this can lead to disordered eating in hopes of staying thin.

If you have any concerns about your child, even if they are slight, touch base immediately with your pediatrician so you can ensure that a full-blown eating disorder does not develop.