Enforcing ‘consequences’
The clinic at Children’s Hospital includes a dining area, where the patient and the family work together with the psychologist and dietitian to encourage healthy eating. The family is often asked to bring a meal that they think will encourage their child to eat.
“We step in and ask the parents how they might get their child to eat in this moment,” Henke said. “Then, we start brainstorming. I sometimes ask, what would they do if their child had cancer and didn’t want chemotherapy. What about if they had a broken leg and insisted on running?
“What it comes down to is choosing between life and an eating disorder. If the child chooses the eating disorder, then they’re too medically compromised to have a phone, to go to that dance, to go to their school.
“It’s not about punishing, it’s about making kids understand that there are choices in life, and sometimes there are consequences for the bad choices they make.”
Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, where people avoid foods or severely restrict their intake. They are often in denial about the seriousness of their low body weight.
They may have to contend with thinning bones, muscle deterioration, brittle hair and nails, severe constipation and the possibility of multi-organ failure.
Bulimia is a condition where people eat unusually large amounts of food (called binge-eating), followed by forced vomiting, excessive use of diuretics or laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviors. Purging can have drastic health repercussions.
Eating disorders run in families, and researchers are working to identify DNA variations linked to increased risks. The newest studies have found differences in patterns of brain activity in women with eating disorders compared with healthy women.
While the disorder has traditionally affected women, it’s on the rise in boys and men, thanks in part to social media, where chiseled images on Instagram lure boys with unrealistic expectations.
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