Early treatment is key to children recovering from eating disorders

Laetitia Beaujard-Ramoo responds to a report on the growing incidence of teachers in primary schools seeing pupils with eating discorders

Your article on 45% of primary teachers encountering eating disorders in primary schools should alarm policymakers, but it will not surprise those of us working in clinical and rehabilitation services (Almost half of primary teachers in England see pupils with eating disorders, survey finds, 31 March).

Children are presenting signs of eating disorders at younger ages, and by the time they reach specialist care their conditions are often more complex and entrenched. This earlier onset reflects a combination of pressures, from social media amplifying body image concerns to unmet emotional needs in children still recovering from the pandemic, and also a system that remains too slow to respond.