Children as young as nine are suffering from anorexia, according to Dr John Griffin, director of the eating disorders programme at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin.

Addressing a seminar on eating disorders at DCU, Griffin said it has become necessary to bring the issue of eating disorders to a younger audience. "We used to concentrate our efforts on fifth and sixth-year girls - now it's fifth and sixth class where the problems are beginning."

Pre-teen magazines, he said, were conditioning nine-year-olds to thinness, before they even reached puberty, the stage usually associated with anorexia.

"We must give children the message that starving yourself is emotionally, mentally and physically dangerous," he said.

Griffin said raising public awareness of eating disorders was an uphill battle and there was a general ignorance of the conditions caused by anorexia and bulimia.

"Anorexia can lead to osteoporosis and to loss of menstruation, which can result in permanent infertility. Bulimia causes low blood potassium (hypokalaemia) which can result in epilepsy and cardiac problems."

Bulimia, he said, generally affected older girls from 18 to 25, and is a failed, chaotic method of dieting involving binge eating followed by vomiting or overdosing on laxatives.

Griffin advised parents to watch for changes in character, mood and school performance, rather than weight loss, as early indicators of these conditions.