Initial Steps When Your Child Has Eating Disorder

As a parent the first step to effectively intervene in your child's eating disorder is to understand that what he or she experiencing is not merely a food or weight problem. "Healthier eating habits and stronger willpower are not the missing ingredients that will make the problem disappear," says Michele Siegel, author of the book “Surviving an Eating Disorder.”
Eating disorders are actually a psychological problem that involves the use of food intake and weight control to solve hidden emotional difficulties. Being a psychological problem, eating disorder calls for more attention to your child. Your goal is to guide him or her to make responsible choices. However, each eating-disordered child situations calls for various approaches. Some situation calls for immediate openness with the disorder while some calls for backing off at first.

When your child has eating disorder, family rules should evolve. Changing original family rules will help the family adjust to the disordered child and develop a healthy attitude toward food and dieting.

How would you bring up the situation to the rest of family members? What are the things you will say to your child? First approaches requires planning in advance as conversation can cause discomfort that can potentially harm your child's recovery. The following guidelines according to Siegel might help:

1. Think through who the best person is to do the talking - Decide with your spouse if you should be the one to talk, or if you should be there, or you should be not. Decide who would have an easier time talking to your child. Don’t involve the rest of the family until after your child is spoken with privately.
2. Pick a time to talk when you are feeling calm - Your feeling may interfere with your achieving the goals that you have in mind. Do not bring up your concerns in a middle of a fight, you are angry, upset, or hurt. Confrontations will resort a person to be defensive and shutting down potential lines of communication. He or she might perceive your communication as an criticism or attack.
3. Pick a time when you know you won't be interrupted - Time pressure may limit you and your child to discuss the situation. Pick a time when both of you have as much time as is needed to talk.
4. Consider writing down what you want to say ahead of time - It is inevitable to feel anxious opening up the subject of eating disorders to your child. Take time to practice your lines to him or her. Write a note and plan your lines.