Check out this fantastic resource if you're struggling to get your anorexia child to eat!

I remember when I asked CAMHS (the treatment team treating my son, Ben, from 2010) if their treatment involved eating plans for weight gain in anorexia, they produced a printed sheet called Eating Plan 6 (there was no mention of Eating Plans 1,2 3, etc...). 

At first, I thought: "Wow! This might just work!" and on the way back from the therapy session, we stopped off at the supermarket to buy the foods shown on Eating Plan 6.

But even as I was filling my supermarket trolley with Eating Plan 6 foods, I began to realise that this wasn't going to work. No way was Ben going to eat any of this stuff. Not in a million years. Especially without any practical help or support in implementing the eating plan.

But, because I was desperate for Ben to put on weight, I decided to try it. 

Ben did actually put on some weight. But implementing the eating plan was a nightmare and I quickly found myself tweaking it to appease the eating disorder in order to make some kind of progress. 

After a couple of months, it was decided that "mum's eating plan" wasn't being helpful to Ben.

The eating plan was dropped and replaced with Ben being permitted to be in charge of his own meals except the evening meal which I cooked (the cooking of which was meticulously "policed" by Ben... you can read all about this horrible episode - and more - in my book "Please eat...")

Unsurprisingly, Ben began to lose weight after that.

I often mention the charity FEAST on here - the charity that supports and empowers parents and carers of young people with eating disorders and which was a lifesaver - literally - for Ben and for us, his parents.

FEAST has also produced a fantastic series of videos to empower families in the punishingly difficult task of getting your child to eat and put on weight - FEAST's Caregiver Skills Program. 

These short videos are packed with help and advice from eating disorder experts on getting your child not only to eat but also to put on weight, both of which are SO VERY TOUGH when you're fighting something as powerful as anorexia or other eating disorders.

So please take a look if you think these resources might be helpful to you.

Meanwhile, here are links to FEAST, its Forum and its (private) Facebook group (ATDTfb - Eating Disorder Family and Carer Support) which I encourage you to consider joining if you're faced with getting your son or daughter through an eating disorder. (ATDT, by the way, stands for Around The Dinner Table which is what the FEAST Forum started out as.)