14-year old daughter with eating disorder

I have a 14 yo girl with ARFID (fairly recently diagnosed but probably has had it her entire life). I am not sure what it means to be diagnosed with "an eating disorder" but not which one? That makes me a little concerned that your girl is not under an MD's ongoing care in some way, or her MD is taking it seriously. We have Kaiser and daughter was admitted to the eating clinic in Oakland after pediatrician referral (this was not a quick process). While we are actually exiting the clinic for a couple reasons - most promisingly that she has gained weight in the past 6 months, and most discouragingly that Kaiser doesn't really seem to differentiate ARFID v anorexia for treatment options - she is staying "half-in, half-out" due to the seriousness of being underweight, and there's a maintenance program. All that is to say that at Kaiser, there has not been offered an after school program per se but at the point where her condition was intense enough that she had the intake into the eating clinic, the treatment was approximately one appointment per week with the strong possibility of increasing to two, between various therapies and weight checks. If she/we aren't successful with this "treatment-lite" option, we may get a Kaiser referral for an inpatient program over the summer since like you, we want to preserve school normalcy.

Guess I could write a novel on this, and certainly will be following the responses because it would be awesome to find an East Bay group for ARFID in particular. Eating disorders are incredibly stressful for families so you have my sympathy and empathy. I just don't think you can effectively treat her until you have a specific diagnosis (anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, or ??).

I agree with a previous reply that an accurate diagnosis of the eating disorder is necessary in order to select a treatment modality and practitioner that has a higher likelihood of being effective.  After an arduous process, my child was diagnosed with ARFID (new to the diagnostic manual at the time) at age 16. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was not able to find appropriate care for them. Care that was provided by practitioners not knowledgeable about AFRID either made no progress with them, or, I believe, resulted in treatment resistance. Eight years later, they continue to struggle with sustaining stable physical and mental health. Much more is known and studied about anorexia, and the evidence-based treatment modalities for the two are very different.

Also necessary for effective treatment is a thorough assessment of the person's physical stability. If the person is medically unstable, or on the edge of medical stability, a higher level of care is indicated. It's not always visibly obvious if a person's heart, for example, is not stable due to nutritional deficiencies.

Eating disorders have the highest morbidity rate of all of the mental heath disorders. It's important to get an accurate diagnosis to align treatment modality and level of care appropriate to the particular need. The Eating Disorders Resource Center located in the South Bay has a robust website and parent support program.