If you are concerned that your teenager may be exhibiting signs of an eating disorder, here are some books that could be helpful.

As a parent, there is nothing more terrifying than your child refusing to eat. Feeding children is something parents do when children are first born, and even as they get older, it is the first thing parents do when children come into a room. How many times do parents say "Are you hungry?" when a child of any age comes into the house?

Eating Disorder Signs

If you are suspicious that your child is exhibiting signs of an eating disorder, you should contact your physician. It is tempting to talk yourself out of seeing the signs -- pushing food around the plate, moodiness and irritability, tiredness, and just being 'not themselves'.

Treatment programs include nutritional counseling, family therapy, and group therapy, with all care coordinated by a physician.

Eating Disorder Books

If your child is diagnosed with an eating disorder, there are excellent books to read to help you understand what he or she is going through and how you as parents can help. Many physicians recommended the following books:

Surviving an Eating Disorder: Strategies for Family and Friends [Michelle Siegel, Collins Publishers, 1997] - this is an older book, but has stood the test of time, been revised, and is definitely considered an eating disorder bible.

Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder [James Lock MD,and Daniel Le Grange, The Guilford Press, 2005] -- an excellent book containing research and case studies from doctors who have treated eating disorders for many years. The book helps parents understand eating disorders by delving into the complexity of these disorders, the distorted thinking behind a teenager's behavior and what the research says about the best ways to treat anorexia and bulimia. Finally, the authors address ways to make treatment work; their treatment approach is widely accepted in the field.

Just a Little Too Thin: How to Pull Your Child Back From the Brink of an Eating Disorder [Michael Strober, Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2006] -- a parental favorite as it applies most directly to a common eating disorder diagnosis: "Eating Disorder NOS". This is a pre-anorexia diagnosis where the child is (ironically) 'not thin enough yet' to receive the anorexia diagnosis but is well on the way.

Other books that are helpful as well, include "Reviving Ophelia," "Gaining" and "Life Without Ed."

If you are a parent with a child suffering from an eating disorder, you are in a very challenging situation. It is a horrendous thing for a parent to endure; it is devastating to see your child not eating. When they are sick as kids, parents can give them medicine but with something like this, that can't easily be 'fixed', parents have to give children the tools they need to help themselves.

Hopefully these books will be helpful to you.

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