Guide to Eating Disorder Recovery in Children
How Parents Can Help Their Child Recover from Anorexia & Bulimia
Oct 21, 2007
How do parents help their child recover from an eating disorder? Can parents do it alone or do they need to seek professional help for anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder?
In Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto’s groundbreaking book, The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders: Supporting Self-Esteem, Healthy Eating, & Positive Body Image at Home, they provide real answers and solutions to eating disorder treatment.
Basing her work on her own professional experience, Marcia Herrin also uses the Maudsley Approach as a basis and has created her own adaptation she calls, Parent-Assisted Meals and Snacks, or PAMS.
The Maudsley Approach for Anorexia
A new method formulated in the 1980’s by British researchers Christopher Dare and Ivan Eisler, focuses on family meals and not psychology. Parents coach their child with anorexia through playing a central role in his or her recovery.
- Parents are not the cause of their child’s eating disorder and need to give up the blame. More important than why the person develops anorexia is re-feeding them through behavior recovery.
- Parents need to take charge and devise a meal plan for their daughter or son in conjunction with a Maudsley-trained professional.
Parent-Assisted Meals and Snacks
PAMS was developed from the Maudsley Approach, which can also be used to treat bulimia and binge eating disorder. It is a step-by-step program using a nutritional approach to home-based recovery, all which is outlined in her book. This normalizes the child or teenager’s eating patterns so that they can re-integrate back into their life.
What Parents Can Do (Summarized from The Guide to Eating Disorders)
- Stop Blaming, Move Beyond Anger: it is important for parents to let go of their own self-blame and focus on what they can do to help.
- Establish a United Front: whether married, divorced, having difficulties or doing well together, parents must work through their own problems to present a consistent front in which their child can depend on.
- The Role of Siblings in Recovery: brothers and sisters are not part of the meal plan, although they do eat together. Their role is to be the ally and friend.
- Take Care of Parental Needs: make sure to share in responsibilities and use a “tag-team” approach. Sometimes therapy is necessary.
- Establish a Collaborative, not Conflictive Relationship: figure out ways to communicate with your child to help them make the most out of their treatment, while still staying in charge.
- Expect Rebellion: separate the rebellion from your child and get angry at the eating disorder, not them.
- Be Flexible: the goal is to get your child to eat, not be fussing over what they’re eating at the beginning.
- Strive to Offer Compassion, Consistency and Security: create a safe haven for your child to recover in and provide an environment full of positive self-esteem and behavior.
 |
