Supporting our daughter with Anorexia Nervosa during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
When the lockdown started in March 2020 we had just begun to come to terms with a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa for our daughter. We were very fortunate to be able to continue to attend weekly appointments in the eating disorder team for both individual and family sessions. We were very reliant on the professional expertise and support the team to help us as parents to understand the diagnosis, take responsibility for the plan and implement weight restoration for our daughter. We had seven people at home and trying to implement a weight restoration programme was very difficult. There was a lot of tension around preparation of food and at meal times. It was very hard to keep a routine to motivate our daughter to follow the plan. She was spending a lot of time in her bedroom and hovering in the kitchen to see what was been prepared.
Weight restoration has been slow with lots of ups and downs along the way. Challenging the eating disorder fears and emotional outbursts with persistence, perseverance and reassurance with both of us being pillars of support for our child at meal times was extremely important. You have to be stronger and louder than the eating disorder to push it away. Not giving up and working through the meals until they are finished is so important.
Not attending school and having to make excuses to her friends and teachers was initially beneficial for her. As weight restoration improved getting back to school in September was a positive experience for her. Our daughter had the support of her friends and was managing well with snacks and lunch breaks in school.
We have hit a plateau again at around 95% weight. Dinner time continues to be a huge challenge. We are trying to introduce feared foods to meals and snacks. Gaining weight helps to overcome the mind-set of restricting foods and our daughter is trying very hard to set challenges each week to overcome feared foods.
As we work our way through the third lockdown attending online appointments we feel that we have made considerable progress and have achieved a lot with weight restoration. We need to push on now to ensure that we achieve full weight restoration and for our daughter to return to full health. It continues to be a difficult and challenging process but with the continued support from the team we are confident that we will succeed.