Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34201 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Wonderful, common-sense advice!
Eating disorders seem to be epidemic, especially among young women, and this book offers sensible advice to those struggling with body image and those who love them. It questions some of our dangerous cultural assumptions, acting as an antidote to the toxic beliefs that are poisoning us. Every parent concerned about a child's eating habits should read this book! Based on years of clinical experience, Ms. Herrin's analysis is profoundly simple and applicable to the world in which we really live. I wish I had read it sooner!

Not recommended
If you're a parent looking for information on family-based treatment (also known as the Maudsley approach), don't buy this book. Herrin has taken some of the principles of Maudsley and adapted them in ways that are contrary to both the letter and spirit of true Maudsley treatment. Much of the advice dispensed here is the same old conventional "wisdom" on treating eating disorders.

Herrin's "adaptations" of the Maudsley approach are often way off the mark. For true Maudsley information, read Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder by Daniel le Grange and James Lock.

--Harriet Brown
Co-chair, Maudsley Parents
www.maudsleyparents.org

Pass this one by
As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with the author's advice on nutrition. Dietetics is her field and I'm willing to accept her expertise there. But most parents are able to feed their recovering child with general guidance from their family-based treatment specialist and a pediatric or adolescent medicine specialist with ED experience. Interestingly, although the authors cite research on family-based treatment, she neglects to mention that those studies did not include nutritionists or dieticians--they were not part of the treatment. If Herrin called her program "Dietician-Centered Weight Restoration" it would more accurately reflect the intervention she describes, with expert information handed down to parents who are meant to act as enforcers.

When we were helping my daughter recover our treatment providers didn't give us a meal plan but rather helped us think of the eating disorder in a different light (as something separate from our daughter, not an expression of her will), they helped us work together to get the job done, they kept us focused and helped us to stay strong and not give up. It was a very difficult period for my daughter but we stayed as positive as we could. Throughout, we emphasized our love and respect for our ill daughter, as did our providers. This set the stage for later treatment when we talked about independence and getting back to normal teenage life. The book gives little attention to these important later aspects, perhaps because they aren't dietary in nature and fall outside the author's area. I was puzzled by the author's suggestion for "concurrent therapy." FBT isn't a rejection of therapy--it's a TYPE of therapy, and weight restoration is just the start. This point seems to have been missed by the authors.

Perhaps I took this too personally, but the presentation of parents using FBT was very much at odds with my experience. The authors write, "Under no circumstance is it acceptable to let their anger boil over into physical aggression." WELL, OF COURSE NOT! At it's heart FBT is a compassionate treatment for anorexia that rests on a foundation of family love and respect. To present parents as stopping just short of violence gives an entirely wrong picture of what it's about.