Childhood Eating Disorders Treatment

Three levels of care

We offer several levels of care to match your child’s needs:

• Inpatient hospitalization, for children who are significantly underweight or have medical conditions caused by their eating disorder.
• Partial hospitalization, children in this program stay at the hospital during the day and go home to sleep (day treatment).
• Intensive outpatient program (IOP), helps children maintain their weight even while they are back at school and attending activities in the community.

We’ll work with your child to understand their eating disorder. Then we’ll create a custom care plan, tailored to their unique needs. Our program includes:

• Individual child therapy to address eating behaviors, stressful or traumatic events, and how your child feels about their life and their body.
• Group therapy to help children and teens feel less alone and to develop coping skills to manage stressors. We have separate groups for younger children and teens.
• School support to make sure children stay on track with school. Our certified teachers work with your child for two hours a day.
• Family therapy to make eating as a family a positive experience. We help you better understand your child’s emotions and struggles. And we help you with communication skills that will last a lifetime.
• Experiential therapy to give children safe, creative spaces to express their feelings. Talk therapy can be hard for kids, especially if they tend to hold their feelings in. Our skilled art therapists, music therapists and recreational therapists help kids connect to their bodies and cope with strong feelings.
• Meal education to teach parents more about nutrition, meal preparation, preparing meals, and how to support their child at meal time.
• Parent education classes to help you sustain positive changes for years to come. We teach you more about your child’s condition so you know what to expect and when to get more help. You’ll also benefit from the encouragement and wisdom of other parents.
• Medication management to help with co-occuring health concerns health such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, self-injury or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Inclusive care

Our goal is to help as many families and children as possible. We recognize that not all families eat the same foods, or have the same values or body ideals. We work with families to create personalized plans that fit their values, preferences and budget. We also provide interpreters for families that need them.

Statistics show that transgender children are at a much higher risk for eating disorders. We have the training and expertise to help children who fall anywhere on the gender or sexuality spectrum feel more at home in their bodies and in their families.

Care for all aspects of your child’s health

We use a holistic lens to treat your child. This means we tend to all aspects of your child’s health, giving them the care they need to heal their minds and bodies.

The Eating Disorders Program is a part of the Psychiatry and Psychology Department. Our highly trained psychologists and psychiatrists have decades of experience treating eating disorders and other mental health issues that may play a role in a child’s overall well-being.

We also have experience in caring for all types of medical needs for example, if a child has diabetes, is in a wheelchair or has heart problems, we have the expertise to treat those conditions alongside an eating disorder.

Resources

• Family Education Videos
• Eating Disorders Resources