What Should Parents do when their child has an eating disorder?

Parents must take action, being responsive to and responsible for the child, self, and the effectiveness of the treatment process.

With the child...confront, educate, and provide nutritious food and meals, sitting down to eat together with the child, and/or where appropriate, assisting the child in managing symptoms. The child with a malnourished brain is incapable of using sound judgment to make responsible decisions about self-care. Where possible, parents should be available to take charge until such time as the child is capable of resuming self-control.
With the self...Know thyself. Though not the cause of their child's eating disorder, a parents attitudes about food and eating could trigger disease onset in an already susceptible child. Develop awareness of personal issues, biases and beliefs around food, weight management and exercise.
With professionals...In seeking professional help, parents must learn what to look for and to know when they have found it. Parents must understand their role in recovery, and resist being mislead by professionals who may minimize or deny parental participation in their child's treatment through warnings that parental involvement is synonymous with interference, and puts the child's privacy and need for independence at risk.

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.