--- - |2 Abstract The aim of the current paper is to evaluate clinical characteristics of 30 children with early onset anorexia nervosa (EO‐AN; age = 12.2 ± 1.6 years) compared with 30 patients with adolescent onset AN (AO‐AN; age = 15.9 ± 0.7 years) and 60 age‐matched healthy controls. Statistical analyses included one‐way analyses of variance with three planned comparisons and chi‐square tests. Compared with AO‐AN, EO‐AN patients displayed more restrictive eating behaviour (p = 0.038), received more tube‐feeding (p = 0.024), and had less problems with self‐esteem (p < 0.001) and perfectionism (p = 0.001). EO‐AN patients have similar eating disorder pathology (p = 0.183), body‐image distortion (p = 0.060), and number of hospitalizations (p = 0.358) as AO‐AN. Only a third of EO‐AN patients suffer from low self‐esteem. Overall, core AN pathology seems similar in EO‐AN and AO‐AN. However, EO‐AN patients show differences in their pathological eating behaviour and the need for tube‐feeding. - European Eating Disorders Review, Volume 26, Issue 5, Page 519-525, September 2018.