|
Early Warning Signs:
Might Your Child Be Prone to
Developing an Eating Disorder?
By Abigail Natenshon
Eating disorders are hard to see. They are secretive diseases camouflaged under perfectionism and achievement.
- Are there eating disorders or addictions in your family?
- Has your child lost weight precipitously?
- Does your child weigh 15 percent less than normal for age and height?
- Does she think she is fat when she is not? Body image concerns
- Is your child a perfectionist or over-achiever?
- Does your child suffer from low self-esteem?
- Does your child need to feel in control?
- Is your child an approval seeker?
- Has your child been teased about his or her weight by peers at school?
A parent’s “healthy eating” lifestyle rituals or compulsions can be passed down to the child in the form of a clinical eating disorder.
Psychotherapist Abigail H. Natenshon has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders with individuals, families, and groups for the past 31years. She is the author of When Your Child Has An Eating Disorder, A Step-by-Step Workbook For Parents And Other Caregivers, Jossey-Bass, 1999. Based on hundreds of successful outcomes, this book shepherds concerned parents step-by-step through the processes of eating disorder recognition, confronting the child, finding the most effective treatment for patient and family, and evaluating and insuring a timely recovery. A guide to eating disorder prevention, this book is useful to parents, health professionals and school personnel alike in countering the pervasive epidemic of unhealthy eating and body image concerns, and destructive media and peer influences. Her work can be reviewed further at www.empoweredparents.com, www.empoweredkidZ.com,
www.treatingeatingdisorders.com.
|
