NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For some obese children, dieting may set off an unhealthy preoccupation with weight and eating, a small study suggests.

Researchers found that among obese adolescents, some of those who had tried dieting eventually developed a preoccupation with weight loss and a habit of binge-eating.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, suggest that for some heavy children, dieting can backfire.

The study included 80 obese children between the ages of 10 and 16 who were interviewed about their history of dieting and attitudes toward weight loss and eating. Half of the children said they had a habit of overeating or bingeing, which refers to overeating with a feeling of being out of control.

Overall, children with such "disordered eating" problems were no more likely to have tried dieting than their peers were.

However, for those who did have a history of diet attempts, the dieting sometimes led to a preoccupation with weight and eating -- a potential precursor to eating disorders. Indeed, among binge-eaters who had dieted, the dieting typically came before the binge-eating problem.

This suggests that for some children, there's a "problematic pathway" from weight problems to dieting to unhealthy attitudes about food and weight, according to study co-author Dr. Caroline Braet of Ghent University in Belgium.

"Parents can do harmful things by putting their overweight children on a diet," Braet told Reuters Health.

However, that doesn't mean the alternative is to let obese children eat whatever they want, she stressed.

It's better to address children's weight problems with regular, balanced meals, limits on snacking and regular physical activity, according to Braet. Rather than trying to get kids to shed pounds with a restrictive diet, she explained, the goal should be to stabilize their weight with healthy eating.