When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 2001

NATENSHON, Abigail H. When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999. 278pp. $22.00 (p).

When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder walks parents step-by-step through the eating disorder battle. It starts by defining eating disorders and addressing common misconceptions surrounding them. Natenshon helps parents determine if their child actually has a problem by clearly outlining signs of the disease. Next, she dives into the action steps for getting children on the road to recovery. She clearly outlines the things that parents can do during this trying time: set standards for balanced eating and exercise lifestyle at home; prepare meals and expect your family to enjoy them together as often as possible; discuss your thoughts, feelings, and values with your children; understand how your own attitudes about food influence your child; hear the "feeling" message behind your child's statements--respond to your child, not the food she consumes; learn as much as you can before reaching out for help; keep expectations realistic for yourself, your child, the treatment process, and the professionals; set goals for yourself and meet them; remember that there are many "right" ways to do things; and begin your foray into the community of health care providers knowing that your child deserves the very best and that your purpose is to make sure she or he gets it. Finally Natenshon walks parents through the long recovery process. She explains how to find the best professionals to work with by providing questions to ask and characteristics to avoid in a therapist. She provides guidelines for setting recovery goals and maximizing insurance coverage, shares case studies as examples, and explains the various stages that a recovering eating disordered person often faces.