SPOTTING eating disorder symptoms in children as young as nine-years-old will allow medics to intervene early and save lives, experts say.

A team from Newcastle University has identified that girls and boys with more eating disorder symptoms at age nine also had a higher number of symptoms at age 12.

A new study published in the academic journal, Appetite, reveals the need to treat eating disorder problems as early as possible to help prevent children developing the life-threatening illness.

The six-year study identified three areas that parents, teachers and doctors should be alert to when looking to detect and help youngsters at risk of the mental health problem.

These factors are: boys and girls with body dissatisfaction, girls with depressive symptoms, and boys and girls who have had symptoms at an earlier stage.

It is believed that this research will help pave the way for early interventions to help young patients deal with their eating disorder.

Dr Elizabeth Evans, Research Associate at Newcastle University’s Institute of Health and Society, led the study.

She said: “This research was not about investigating eating disorders themselves, rather we investigated risk factors for developing early eating disorder symptoms.

“Most previous work on children and young adolescents has only looked at the symptoms at one point in time so cannot tell which factors precede others.

“Our research has been different in that we have specifically focused on the factors linked with the development of eating disorder symptoms to identify children at the greatest risk.”