
If you feel unprepared to help a child or teen with an eating disorder, you’re not alone. A 2015 study of Family medicine, Internal medicine, Psychiatry (general,child, and adolescent) and Pediatrics residency programs revealed that less than 10% included specific training on eating disorders.
Too often, all eating disorders are lumped together as one disease with a simple prescription: eat more.
But there are lots of different types of eating disorders, as well as a whole spectrum of eating behaviors that are destructive but not clinically diagnosable.
“It’s not just ‘eat more’ or ‘eat better’. Eating disorders are about more than just food intake,” says Sara Forman, MD, director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Outpatient Eating Disorders Program. “Eating disorders are psychological illnesses with physical manifestations. You can’t just expect someone to change their behaviors without supportive medical and psychological care.”
As more research on the various forms and pathologies of eating disorders is documented, more effective treatments and support services are understood. …Read More