DR. WALLACE: I'm 16, and like most teenage girls, I'm concerned about being overweight, especially now that it's almost "bikini" time. My school counselor called me into her office today and said that some girls at school are concerned because I'm so thin. They told the counselor that I might be anorexic.

I don't eat a lot, but I'm sure that I don't have an eating disorder. My counselor called my mom and told her that she was concerned about my "slimness," and advised mom to get me checked out.

My mom asked me to write to you and ask how we would know if I had a disorder. — Nameless, Rochester, N.Y.

NAMELESS: Answer these questions honestly. A "yes" answer to any one of these questions indicates that you could be suffering from anorexia or bulimia and should seek evaluation from a professional (doctor, psychologist, social worker).

—Do I restrict my intake to less than 500 calories a day?

—Do I skip two or more meals a day?

—Do I eat a lot of food within two hours, while feeling out of control?

—Do I use laxatives or water pills to lose or control weight?

—Do I exercise excessively or vomit?

—Do I avoid social functions, or stay home from school or work, just to keep an eating or exercise schedule?

If you do need professional assistance, obtain it soon. Both anorexia and bulimia are serious eating disorders and if not overcome, can lead to permanent damage or even death in extreme cases.

SMOKE DETECTORS SAVE LIVES

DR. WALLACE: What makes smoke detectors so important? If a house was on fire, you'd burn up and the detector might not even go off. Sometimes companies scare people into buying their products when they aren't really needed. — Bill, Lima, Ohio.

BILL: Some companies do make exaggerated claims about the importance of their products, but companies that manufacture smoke detectors are not among them. A high percentage of deaths in fires are caused by smoke inhalation, not the flames.

According to the American Council on Sciences and Health, residential fires claim over 5,000 lives yearly in the United States. Many of these deaths occur because too much time elapsed before the fire was detected. Functional smoke detectors placed just outside every bedroom and in other strategic areas in the house are truly lifesavers. Every house must have this protection and the alarms should be checked once a year to make sure they are working.

I'M THREE INCHES TALLER THAN MY FATHER

DR. WALLACE: I'm 5'6" tall. That's fairly tall for a 17-year-old girl. My mom is 5'3" and my dad is 5'5". You told a teen that height is inherited from parents. If this is true, why am I taller than both my mother and my father? I think you made a mistake. Also, my brother is 5' 7" tall. What give? - Sadie, Tulsa, Okla.

SADIE: Tall parents tend to have tall children and short parents tend to have short children because height is basically determined by heredity. But children are not exact duplicates of their parents and it is quite common for them to be taller than their parents, in part because of improved nutrition. I am three inches taller than my father!

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. E-mail him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.