How to Nourish Your Child Through An Eating Disorder
A Simple, Plate-by-Plate Approach® to Rebuilding a Healthy Relationship with Food
by Casey Crosbie and Wendy Sterling
Parents of kids who are struggling with an eating disorder (ED)—including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and many more that go undiagnosed—quickly find themselves at a loss as to how to feed their child and ensure they are receiving adequate nutrition. Now, registered dietitians Casey Crosbie and Wendy Sterling present their innovative and easy-to-implement visual approach that demonstrates balanced meals with the optimal ratio of nutrients—designed to set kids and teens on a path toward permanent recovery.
The“Plate-by-Plate Approach” is rooted in the leading psychological approach to ED, family-based treatment (FBT), which enables parents to treat their child at home rather than send them to an expensive in-patient program. Paired with therapy, this essential guide covers everything parents need to know about nutrition, plus the warning signs and potential health risks, how to talk about weight changes and set goals for treatment, and how to incorporate structure at mealtimes. Their approach, the“Plate-by-Plate Approach,” was published in the Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics entitled, “The Use of the Plate-by-Plate Approach for Adolescents Undergoing Family-Based Treatment.”
The book's foreword was written by James Lock, MD, PhD, Director, Eating Disorder Program, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and Neville H. Golden, MD, Chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine, The Marron and Mary Elizabeth Kendrick Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine. Follow Wendy and Casey’s page on instagram for tips of building good plates, encouragement and support @platebyplateapproach and purchase your copy of How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder today!
ENDORSEMENTS
“A key tenet of family-based treatment (FBT) for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) is to empower parents so that they (the parents) can bring about weight restoration for their teen. This process is a delicate one—the clinician is to support the parents’ efforts without telling them what to do, yet steering them in the right direction. Parents and providers can get tripped up in this task as weight restoration seldom follows a straight upward trajectory. A solid under-standing of the nutritional requirements for recovery in AN is key to getting this task done. That said, the foundation model of FBT does not specify how best to integrate nutritional expertise in this treatment. This book offers a terrific start to this process—it will inform parents rather than prescribe to parents. Crosbie and Sterling take great care to use their nutritional expertise to complement the key FBT tenets. As a result, How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder will be a helpful tool not only to parents, but also to the many clinicians who are tasked with supporting parents in their struggle to help their child overcome an eating disorder.”
—Daniel Le Grange, PhD, Benioff UCSF Professor in Children’s Health and Eating Disorders director, Department of Psychiatry and UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, and emeritus professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, the University of Chicago
“[With] simple and clear yet science-backed recommendations, and professional yet compassionate tone . . . I’d recommend this book to any RD who works with young ED clients participating in FBT.”
—Today’s Dietitian
“For the parents of patients with eating disorders, this book, written by two prominent nutritionists, provides a comprehensive understanding of the illness and a practical approach to the refeeding process. Overall, an excellent summary of what parents need to know.”
—Martin Fisher, MD, chief, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, Northwell Health
“I highly recommend this book to any parent whose child has an eating disorder! How To Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder provides concrete tools—based in science—in a friendly, compassionate, and easy-to-understand way.
—Jenni Schaefer, bestselling author of Life Without Ed; Goodbye Ed, Hello Me; and Almost Anorexic
“Parents: This book is your play-by-play for exactly how you can help your child heal their mind and body with food!”
—Rebecca Scritchfield, RDN, EP-C, author of Body Kindness
“Casey Crosbie and Wendy Sterling’s practical book is an innovative and user-friendly resource on how to nourish a child with an eating disorder back to health. Crosbie and Sterling provide an important adjunctive approach to FBT, the first-line outpatient treatment for eating disorders. This excellent resource offers helpful strategies to empower parents and caregivers to play an active role in their adolescent’s recovery.”
—Debra K. Katzman, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Pediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto and Director, Health Science Research, MD Program University of Toronto
“Family-based treatment is extremely effective, yet difficult. How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder provides just the help parents need to ensure their child will recover at home.”
—Marcia Herrin, EdD, MPH, RDN, FAED, author of the Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders and Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders