True soul food on the ATDT parents' forum...

I know I keep going on about how much of a lifesaver the Around The Dinner Table parents' forum has been for me over the past 18 months, but it's true. I've met so many supportive people through it, from across the globe, and made a number of very good friends here in the UK.

"Experiments", "choices" and "mistakes"... aaarrrggghh!

If I had £10 for every time these words have been mentioned over the last 20 months of eating disorder treatment, I'd be rich! I believe our slow progress on the weight gain front, indeed the lack of progress on the weight gain front, is entirely due to our treatment team's insistence on letting Ben "make his own choices". All the modern evidence points towards this as being the anorexia treatment equivalent of being prescribed leeches "to draw out ill humors from the blood"...

Stuck for solutions on the socialising front...

He's still having serious problems integrating with his friends and finds it all to easy to flee from the problem. Having thrown all the ideas and solutions I can think of into the pot, I really am at a loss for what to suggest next. So I've posted a new thread on the really brilliant Around The Dinner Table Forum to see what the other Mums of teenagers with eating disorders think. Read it here>>

Trying to pick up where you left off before you took off for Planet ED...

We had a 'heated discussion' last night, shall we say, about the problems Ben is having trying to pick up where he left off with his friends and peers, before the eating disorder arrived on the scene 2 years ago.

Worried about the summer hols again...

I'm worried that Ben isn't socialising much recently, if at all. Socialising was always a sticky issue with the eating disorder and, after a period of improvement, I worry we've gone backwards on this count. The summer holidays (vacation) starts on Friday and I'm concerned that Ben will spend much of it alone, despite prompts from us to 'find things to do' over the summer...

Chatting to the same person on the same grassy bank, 2 years on...

Yesterday was the school Prize Day followed by the house Sports Day in the afternoon. Last year, at the height of Ben's anorexia, we didn't go to either. But this year we went to both - and Ben was helping out at the Sports Day, so I spent the afternoon sitting in the sun on the grassy bank overlooking the playing fields, just as I'd done 2 years ago when Ben was competing the 1500m race. And just as I'd done 2 years ago I got talking to the mum of the boy who Ben had beaten in that race. "Haven't seen you around for AGES!!" she exclaimed, reminding me of how she and I used to gossip merrily away during our sons' rugby matches every Saturday morning.

Lemon meringue pie, spicy Mexican pork and chicken tikka masala

All are currently being cooked by Ben - a bizarre combination of smells, but no doubt delicious when they're all finished! In the 'high anorexia days' he wouldn't have eaten ANY of these things. There are still 'no go' foods on his list, however...