Over eight million in the United States have eating disorders. Seven million of them are women and girls. The usual age of onset is either adolescence or when a woman goes off to college or moves out of her parents' home. But as our Katie Gibas reports, the number of girls developing eating disorders at younger ages is increasing at an alarming rate.

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UNITED STATES -- With all the images of super skinny supermodels on TV and in magazines, there are a lot of unrealistic pressures on young girls about what their bodies should look like. And that message seems to be having a more detrimental effect on children than ever before.

"The kids we were seeing with eating disorders were getting younger and younger," said David Rosen, Adolescent Eating Disorder Specialist.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show the number of people under the age of 12 admitted to the hospital for eating disorders sky rocked 119 percent in less than a decade. These diseases now account for 4% of all childhood hospitalizations.

"The people who really need to know this are parents and people at schools and if those folks don't realize that kids this young are at risk for eating disorders, get eating disorders, that the weight loss they're seeing might be related to eating disorders, then the diagnosis and the management of these kids, just gets delayed to the point where it becomes more difficult," said Rosen.

Dr. Rosen says he's seen children as young as eight come in for treatment for eating disorders. And experts aren't really sure what's causing the drastic increase. It could be the fear of obesity and trying to prevent it could be backfiring. It could be that women are maturing at an earlier age, but regardless of the causes, the question for doctors now becomes what can they do to prevent children from developing eating disorders.

"There are some programs out there. There are some that are being tested. But there are really no effective prevention programs, so early identification is really critical. It will have to involve the family also. As much as it is talking about what are healthy attitudes towards food and your body, and why is it that you shouldn't be dieting," said John Wohlers, Centre Syracuse Eating Disorder Center Clinical Director.

Eating Disorder experts say the recovery rate for adolescents is about 80 percent, while for adults with the disease, it's only 30 percent.

For more information on eating disorders:

eating-disorders-treatment.com

nationaleatingdisorders.org