Fast-food charity becomes home to eating disorders

[HuckleB]

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/renee_mitchell/index.ssf?/base/news/1106139984241490.xml

Fast-food charity becomes home to eating disorders

Wednesday, January 19, 2005
The Oregonian
by S. Renee Mitchell

North Portland's Ronald McDonald House is not adding eight rooms because more children are suffering from cancer, heart disease or life-threatening burns. The expansion is specifically in response to another heart-wrenching illness: eating disorders.

A growing number of children -- and their families -- staying at the 16-room house are seeking treatment for binge and purge anorexia, bulimia and related disorders. The patients are boys as well as girls, elementary school students as well as those who are college age.

"This is the scariest thing that I've seen here," says Tom Soma, executive director of Portland's two Ronald McDonald House locations. "And it's scary because it has the least amount of good knowledge about it."

As a parent of three children who are all in the middle of a dramatic growth spurt, this hidden trend is scary for me, too. Ronald McDonald House accepts only families who live outside a 50-mile radius of Portland. Think about how many more children there are who suffer from this but don't have to leave Portland to get treatment. An eating disorder is consistently one of the top three or four reasons that families stay at the charity attached to Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Preemies and heart problems top the list. Eating disorders tend to battle cancer for No. 3.

[LiberalEsto]

1. We will stuff you with Big Macs

or else!!!!

[HuckleB]

2. With Whole Wheat Bread, of course.