Girl with rare muscle disorder learns to walk at age 4

Published April 25, 2013

The Sun

Lillia Reading is finally learning to walk and run at the age of 4 — after she was given splints.

Lillia was born with a rare muscular disease, which left both her knees permanently bent like a frog’s.

She developed just two muscles in each leg instead of 15 and got around by wheelchair or shuffling on her bottom.

But Lillia is now up and running — after doctors cut the tendons behind her knees and attached splints to straighten her legs.

Her mother, Katie, 31, said the splints cover her whole leg and bend around the knee. 

"If she wants to get up and run around she can just pop them on, then take them off when she wants to sit," Katie said.
"She’s a proper little princess — and now she can strut around like one too.”

Doctors diagnosed Lillia’s condition — a form of muscular myopathy they had never encountered — after she was born four weeks early, weighing 4 pounds, 5 ounces. She's had 13 surgeries but nothing worked — until now.

Lillia, from Sheffield, now goes to nursery school and can’t wait to start primary school in September.

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Amanda Bynes tweets that she has an eating disorder: Most candid celeb confession?

Published April 05, 2013

SodaHead.com

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  Amanda Bynes smiles on stage in 2002.AP

Maybe this explains why Amanda Bynes hasn't been exhibiting the most healthy behavior lately: she has an eating disorder.

SODAHEAD SLIDESHOW: See the most candid celebrity eating disorder confessions.

Bynes hasn't exactly been the best role model in recent months, but eating disorders are very serious and can even be fatal, which is why we admire celebs who come forward and talk about their struggles with anorexia, bulimia and other disorders.

This includes Lady Gaga, who admitted last year to having suffered from "bulimia and anorexia since I was 15."

And Portia de Rossi, who discussed her history of anorexia and bulimia in her memoir "Unbearable Lightness."

Plenty of other stars have opened up about starving themselves, as well as binging and purging. "X Factor" judge Demi Lovato confessed to struggling with eating disorders and self-harm; "Sopranos" actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler said exercise bulimia brought her to the verge of contemplating suicide.

In 2010, Snooki told OK! magazine she coped with eating disorders as she tried to maintain a small size as a high school cheerleader. "I just started eating salads and salads,” she said. “Then I got to a point where I was just eating a cracker a day. And I was down to 80 pounds."

Last year, former Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger told VH1's "Behind the Music" about her longtime struggle with bulimia.

And Katie Couric was bulimic in college, she said on her talk show "Katie" last year. "I know this rigidity, this feeling that if you eat one thing that's wrong, you're full of self-loathing and then you punish yourself. Whether it's one cookie or a stick of gum that isn't sugarless . . . sometimes [I would] beat myself up for that," she said.

PHOTOS: See the latest celebrity pictures to hit the Internet.

From Amanda to Gaga, let us know: Which celeb made the most candid eating disorder confession?

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Campaign raises awareness for National Eating Disorder Week

With the Grammy Awards and Academy Awards this month, it might be challenging to love your body just the way it is. It’s human nature to compare yourself to celebrities and people with power and fame, even if it’s not realistic or beneficial.

MORE FROM EMPOWHER:

Disordered Eating: How It Relates to Eating Disorders and Mental Health

Living Beyond Eating Disorders

Recognize an Eating Disorder
 

But don’t forget that National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is Feb. 24, 2013 to March 2, 2013. This week is a reminder that you are fine just the way you are, and you are not alone.

Many other people have the same insecurities, and some people even develop eating disorders, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Poor body image and low self esteem can be major contributing factors to eating disorders, so it’s important to stop comparing yourself negatively to others and start loving yourself completely.

“The aim of NED Awareness Week is to ultimately increase outreach and awareness of eating disorders and body image issues, while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment resources,” according to the official website.

“Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses – not choices – and it's important to recognize the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape the disorder.”

Lynn Grefe, the president and CEO of National Eating Disorders Association, said in an email that although the theme for this year’s awareness week is the same as last year’s, “Everybody Knows Somebody,” this year is more focused on “diversity in the population” instead of last year’s focus on people’s individual roles (mother, sibling, father, etc.).

“We are working very hard to stress that eating disorders know no boundaries,” Grefe said.

During this week, the National Eating Disorders Association also partnered with Screening for Mental Health, Inc., to create the website www.mybodyscreening.org/, which allows people to take free and anonymous self-assessments to find out if they might have an eating disorder.

Grefe said that in the past year, there have been some specific advances in body image and eating disorder awareness.

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