Lexi was seven when she developed anorexia and now she's scared for Aussie kids

Lexi Crouch was seven when she began to develop an eating disorder that would plague her for 15 years and almost claim her life.

Now she's terrified for children like her daughter Mabel, seven, as confronting new research reveals one in five kids and adolescents already show signs of disordered eating.

"It's just getting so out of hand. It's something that parents should really be looking for red flags in their children," she tells 9Honey.

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Born in 1988, Crouch grew up in the '90s when Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig were seen as "the pinnacle of health" and was exposed to diet culture from a very young age.

Bullying broke down her confidence, and seeing her mum dieting all the time inspired Crouch to start controlling her food intake and obsess over her body long before puberty.

"My whole mindset was just based around having to lose weight, having to look a certain way, and it spiralled into a full-blown eating disorder that very much took over my life," she says.

"Everybody just thought that I was taking dieting and health very seriously¡­ it was easy to fly under the radar."

It wasn't until she was 13 that a school counsellor picked up on her behaviour and brought it up with her parents, leading to a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.?

It was suggested moving Crouch to a new school would help, so she was enrolled in a boarding school where "all hell broke loose for the eating disorder".?

Left to her own devices, the teen sank even deeper into the grips of her eating disorder and by the time she was 16 it was so severe she had to be hospitalised.

"I never got to finish school. That essentially opened up the round of hospital admissions for me," she says, adding that her time in hospital was rarely focused on recovery.?

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In the following years, Crouch would be hospitalised 25 times. She was in and out of medical intensive care units and even put into a medically induced coma twice to let her body heal.

At 21, the illness almost claimed her life and she was given hours to live. Crouch was certain she would never recover and spent years in a dark depression.

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She tried to get better multiple times through her 20s, but it was a slow, uncomfortable process that felt like taking one step forward, then two steps back. Finally, she began to heal.

Now, 11 years on from the start of her recovery journey, Crouch looks at her own seven-year-old daughter and fears for her and children like her in the digital age.

About one million Australians are living with an eating disorder in any given year, many of them children or teens whose whole lives are built around social media and celebrity culture.

Her own eating disorder was deeply affected by the diet culture of the '90s, but now children have 24/7 access to harmful dieting content on their phones and it's getting worse.

Instagram is flooded with unrealistic body standards, TikTok is full of diet videos and there's a huge section of the internet dedicated to 'thinspo' designed to inspire eating disorders.

Even content that seems harmless can be hugely damaging to impressionable young Aussies, like celebrities promoting particular eating habits.

This week, Gwenyth Paltrow made headlines after revealing her "wellness routine" involves fasting for hours every day and eating bone broth for lunch.

Though many internet users brushed off her comments as ridiculous, impressionable young women struggling with body image or food issues could easily latch onto her advice.

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"It's just become this absolute fantasy world of things that are not accurate. It's very scary. It's terrifying and the information there is not great," Crouch says.

Not only is there so much harmful information about dieting in the media and online, many Australians don't realise how damaging eating disorders are until they see it for themselves.

Anorexia almost tore her family apart, and even now she refers to it as a "demon" that took over her body and her life.

"People don't understand that if you're trying to get your child to sit down and eat breakfast, that might be a five-hour activity," she says of children battling eating disorders.?

"You're smashing bowls, you're seeing this absolute demon come out of somebody because they don't want to eat. That's what the media doesn't see."

After 15 long years of anorexia and several more spent in recovery, Crouch was finally able to be rid of the demon, but some don't survive that battle - especially when it starts young.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder and almost killed Crouch, but maybe if her "red flags" had been caught sooner things wouldn't have become so dire.

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"Early intervention is key. If you do think that there is something wrong, reaching out for help at any point is always a great idea," she warns.

For parents who don't have an education about or understanding of eating disorders, Crouch encourages them to seek it out for the sake of their children.

Having learned from her own journey to recovery, she now runs short courses to help other Aussies understand the signs and symptoms and find support for themselves and others.

Some of her most vital tips for parents are to avoid labelling foods as 'good' or 'bad', opt out of negative self-talk and discussing dieting, and try to foster a neutral approach to food.

It's also hugely important to model positive behaviour around food and body image in front of children and avoid feeding into harmful diet culture rhetoric.

Crouch is very particular about her language with daughter Mabel and has been forced to shut down damaging comments and conversations from other parents before.

"They're trying to do the best thing for their kids, but if that means no sugar and no gluten, no dairy and a lot of food rules, I don't think that's going to be healthy down the track," she says.

In her house, no food or eating habits are put on a pedestal or glorified because it "sends the wrong message and sets up some really disordered behaviours down the track".?

Crouch also reminds parents that children don't need to be visibly underweight to be at risk or in the grips of an eating disorder and early intervention is vital.

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Though it can be hard to relive the darkest moments of her eating disorder, Crouch knows that speaking up could help save another child from experiencing the same battle.

"If my story could help one person and show that there was hope out there, that inspires you to keep going," she adds.

Lexi Crouch is a nutritionist, eating disorder advocate, yoga teacher and instructor for Endeavour Short Courses and just designed a course on natural mental wellness.

Anyone needing support with eating disorders or body image issues is encouraged to contact the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673 (1800 ED HOPE) or support@butterfly.org.au. You can also call the Eating Disorders Victoria Helpline on 1300 550 23 or Lifeline on 13 11 14 for urgent support.

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