To think size 2!!! is extreme???

[kayzr]

Just watching the tv and an advert for a catalogue came on. The clothes are from a size 2!!!! Surely selling clothes that small its encouraging people to not eat and get even slimmer. I was a size 10 before I had ds and was told by many people I looked to thin. I cant even imagine what a size 2 woman would look like.

It has changed over years, Belgo, you are absolutely right.

For example I have a dress from Gap and a skirt from Next which I bought years ago. They are both size 8 and still fit. And yet size 8 in most shops is too big for me now (usually trousers and skirts).

It's the re-sizing that is wrong.

this picture was labelled as "Britney is fat" in the media.

I wish I was fat like that Salty!

I know, the doctors have told her parents they might have to admit her and put a tube in her stomach to force feed her. But she saud she would just rip it out.
After I have my second kid I'd love to look like Britney does it that picture.

Me too lapin. it highlights though what the media think of as "fat". In that photo she looks very healthy - healthier than she does now!,

Saltaire - Know where you are coming from.
I too am 6 foot, when I first went to Uni I was a size 8 and did look anorexic. When I got married I was slightly under a 14 but too big for a 12, and now I am an 18 and was told I need too loose weight which would take me down to pre wedding weight and ill looking.

I do agree that the whole size 0 thing has gone too far though no one can pull of being that skinny

hula: "her mum is so normal and done nothing to cause this."

does this mean mums are sometimes considered to have caused anorexia?

I was told by mw when I was pregnant I was underweight and I weight 9st 5 But I've just been told by doctor that the healthy weight to ttc #2 for my height is 9st. Its so confusing

my local asda has started stocking size 4 clothes

I dont think it is encoraging people not to eat obviously if they are selling size 2 clothes there is a market for them.

Some women are naturally petite [evny] we cant exclude them from advertising just because it might make someone else not want to eat.

Vacua, I read that as meaning that the mother doesn't have anorexia or weight issues herself that her DD may have witnessed.

Vacua - no not at all. I just meant that there are no problems within the fasmily relationships. Her mum has no food issues that she has projected onto her child. The girl is praised and made to feel good, and helped, etc by her mum. So there are no obvious causes IYSWIM. Having been through eating disorder issues within my own family I am very aware that they are not caused by parents.

However poor relationships within teh family, etc can contribute too in some circumstances. Many eating diusorders are about reaining control over some aspect of life, and for childrn this does often stem from within the family. There are obviosuly other triggers also however - peers, work, school, other relationships, etc.

I'm that shops are saying they won't stock small sizes as they don't want to encorage people to be thinner than a size 8. Obesity is estimated to cost the country £7.4 billion per year and kills 30,000 people a year. Its a much bigger problem than being underweight but large sizes are still sold. I don't want to look unsympathetic towards people with eating disorders but its a complex mental illness with multiple factors playing a part. People who want to be below their normal weight are not going to change their mind because there are limited styles in high street shops.

I disagree,

My sister is 14 and wears age 10 clothes!

shes sooo petite and slim, but hses tall so its so difficult to find clothes.

She eats like a pig! Its just the way shes made,

and Im sure when she hits 16/17 she will bewearing size 2/4 clothes , not by any reason such as eating disoreder or being influenced by the media ect .. its just the way god made her!

Some peopel are made that way and they need to wear clothes!

well there's evidence for a genetic basis to the disorder, but I thought it was a strange comment - as if the first thing that comes to mind when a child develops anorexia is 'what's the mum's relationship with food/body image like?'

but how touchy am I this morning!

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My friend used to be a ballet dancer and its where her disorder started as she always felt a lot larger than all the other people in her dance class. If there wasnt so much news of thin celebrities looking 'fat' in the news maybe some girls wouldnt want to starve themselves

Agree with you teakettle.

And 'down sizing' clothes probably does not help people to accept their actual size/weight.

Yes but advertising size 2 clothes for a catalogue is not the same as having thin celebrities pasted all over some magazine now is it?

Catalogues are selling clothes, not exploiting women.

Vacua - well it certainly wan't meant in any odd "lets blame mum" type of way. Honestly, after the last couple of years or so dealing with this kind of issue in my own close family, and now seeing my friend going through hell with her young daughter, I would not be the one laying blame.

However I do think it is clear that if a close friend or relative as big issues with food then this can easily be projected onto a child, as they are influenced greatly in younger years by those around us.

What was the name of hte catalogue btw?

I cant remember. I dont think I actually looked I was more looking at the size 2 part. Next time the advert comes on I'll tell you.

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hula: no I know, I'm touchy, it's ok - it's all the gruelling family therapy! although these days ours is based more upon 'how can we work together to promote recovery' than 'what sort of things have contributed to the anorexia in the past' and that's how I view all the size zero stuff, just one of several possible contributory factors. I think, a bit like cancer, asking why is not as useful as asking how - how can we make you well, as once the disorder takes hold the fact that your mum lived on half an apple a day (like mine did) or someone said you had fat legs is a bit irrelevant.

I hope your friend's daughter makes a good recovery, we're approaching, I think, our 20th week with mine in hospital and her progress has been amazing. not so much with weight gain although she is now in mother nature's healthy range (menstruating - BMI tables are stupid anyway) but with her attitude and openness. It didn't seem possible, even just a couple of months ago.

The US needs a very wide range of dress sizes to reflect its very genetically diverse population, ranging from Nordic tall ladies to dinky Asiatic ladies- a healthy woman of 6ft is hardly going to require the same dress size as a healthy woman of 4ft7. So there will always be a need for size 0.

My husband's now adult niece is 4ft 10 and has to buy some of her clothes in children's sections. The upside is that when she tires of them, she passes them onto my 12 yr old, who is now only marginally shorter and the same dress size.