Family-Based Treatment for eating disorders in young people
A potent intervention designed to create residential treatment at home.
Keeps kids at home and engaged in their lives while they return to health.
A Potent Treatment for Kids with Eating Disorders
Family-Based Treatment (FBT), also called the “Maudsley Method ,” is targeted for children with eating disorders. It has proven to be the most effective intervention for sustained recovery from anorexia nervosa, and studies are showing similar success in recovery from bulimia nervosa.
At Columbus Park, we see remarkable success with our FBT families—and in almost all cases of childhood anorexia or bulimia, we will recommend FBT as the intervention of choice.
FBT is the most effective and time-efficient treatment for eating disorders. The standard protocol requires just one or two meetings each week. FBT is cost-effective, with a fraction of the cost as an alternative to hospitalization.
We see great benefit in avoiding a hospital or group program setting for our youngest patients. Unless there is immediate medical complication, we believe it’s in the child’s interest to recover in the least restrictive setting possible, surrounded by family support, protection, and encouragement.
Parental empowerment
Parental* empowerment is at the core of FBT. The treatment charges parents with the critical role of restoring their children back to optimal mental and physical health. For a malnourished child with anorexia, food is the only medicine available. Given the 35–42 doses of nutrition (3 meals and 2–3 snacks per day) your child will require weekly to successfully be re-fed and avoid hospitalization, they will require intensive “medication” management. In this process, every bite counts as a step back to the healthy child you once knew.
*FBT requires the commitment of at least one primary caregiver, but other close family members or friends may be central supports as well.
The Re-feeding Process: FOOD IS MEDICINE
FBT Phase 1
During the first phase of FBT, you relieve your child of the responsibility of eating by taking full control of their food choices. It is common for there to be resistance from the child at the beginning; if eating was easy for your child, you wouldn’t be reading this!
We fully support you through this challenging phase with concrete strategies and guidance directed to help you achieve the necessary compliance from your child. Parents often find that within a few weeks, they’re able to get into a groove and the feeding gets easier. The child begins to show signs of returning health—physically, emotionally, and behaviorally.
FBT Phase 2
During the second phase of FBT, you will slowly give your child more and more age-appropriate independence as they evidence an ability to feed themselves appropriately.
This phase is about maintaining weight with normalized eating and less management by parents.
FBT Phase 3
During the third phase of FBT, you work to restore a more normal lifestyle and relationships between family members, with particular focus on addressing gaps in development, which eating disorders often leave behind.
Support for the supporters
There is nothing more powerful than your child’s family firmly planted on the frontline of the re-feeding effort. That said, many dedicated parents have other responsibilities that prevent them from being available at each of the five daily feedings. If clinically indicated, we can offer FBT-friendly meal support, to step in when you are unable to physically be there.
Our goal is to work creatively to ensure supervision for all of your child’s meals, while capturing the spirit of our family-based work together, even in your absence. These meals might be administered by a Columbus Park-affiliated clinician or the nurse or counselor at your child’s school. Whomever you choose to allow to help re-feed your child, your FBT therapist will work closely with them to ensure that continuity of care is upheld.
Post-Hospitalization Option
The changing landscape of managed care has shortened the length of hospital stays. As a result, eating disorder inpatient units largely function to medically stabilize patients and restore minimal weight over the course of just a few weeks. We know you want 100% of your child back, and so you know this is just the first leg of the journey.
Your active participation in continuing the re-feeding process as your child transitions out of a hospital setting is critical. We are available to coordinate this transition and help you pick-up where the hospital left off.
Parents as the solution
Parents are not the cause of their child’s eating disorder but they can be the solution. FBT is an empowering and healing intervention that sets families up for success for the long term.
