When your kids leave home to head off to the ivory tower of learning, you probably have many fears about what may befall them now that you’re not around on a daily basis to keep them safe and ensure that they’re taking care of themselves. You might worry that they’ll party too much with their new friends at the expense of attending classes and doing their homework. And for that matter, they could fall in with the wrong element on the friend front. Then there are all of the stresses that will be heaped upon them with the responsibility of managing their own schedule and the anxieties that come with a new living situation and new social groups.

Of course, you’ll probably also wonder if they’re eating right. But amongst all these fears, you may never even consider the potential for your kids to develop an eating disorder. And yet, it’s not entirely uncommon for new college students to fall into bad habits where their diets are concerned, and this can easily lead to eating disorders.

It is estimated that many students suffer from disordered eating–they fail to eat on a regular schedule or that they do not consume a balanced diet, or often, both. But eating disorders are a much more severe permutation of this basic concept. Even still, approximately 10-20% of female college students are thought to suffer from clinical eating disorders while somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-10% of males go down the same path. This is a rather alarming statistic when you consider that the percentages of people with eating disorders amongst the general public are much lower (according to statistics from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication). So what makes entering college a trigger for eating disorders for such a large number of students?

What you need to understand about serious eating disorders is that they are rarely linked to some kind of digestive issue. Rather they are psychological in nature. What motivates people to binge, purge, or starve themselves is often a psychological stressor (or several). When people feel that their lives are out of control and that there is little they can do to relieve their stress, they may turn to the one thing they can control, their diet, as a way to regain some measure of authority in their own lives. Even if that means they are skipping meals or vomiting up nearly everything they consume. In rare cases, body dysmorphia of some kind may be at the root of the problem. But since college represents a hugely stressful time in the lives of most young people, chances are good that the environment and the situation play a major role in the onset of eating disorders.

As a parent, you may have bigger fears concerning your student than whether or not you should send them off with a years’ supply of granola bars, vitamin supplements, and proteinex. But don’t overlook the signs and symptoms of an eating disorders (significant weight loss or gain, obsession with food, exercise, isolation, unwillingness to eat in front of others, and so on). This type of condition can be even more harmful than the partying you’re probably worried about – it can even be deadly.

Since you never stop parenting, pay close attention to any of these signs and prevent your student from going down a path that will ultimately affect their health.