When Food Feels Scary: Eating Disorders in Kids & Teens (Early Signs & What Helps)

When food starts to feel tense, restrictive, or obsessive at home, it can send a parent into panic fast. In observation of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Dr. Becky sits down with Dr. Erin Parks, Chief Clinical Officer at Equip Health, to talk about eating disorders and disordered eating in kids and teens—what the early signs look like, what’s happening emotionally underneath, and how parents can respond without escalating shame or control struggles. Eating disorders affect an estimated 30 million Americans in their lifetime. They are common. They are serious. And they are not caused by “bad parenting.”

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  After my first baby was born, I treated my own recovery like a complete afterthought. If the baby needed something, I showed up immediately. If I needed something, well, it would wait. But research shows that when parents have the support they need, they're better able to care for their children. Taking care of yourself isn't separate from parenting. It's a huge part of parenting. That's why I love Frida's mission to prepare women for the realities of pregnancy, postpartum, recovery, and feeding. Frida creates solutions for the moments that often catch moms off guard. The Postpartum Essentials Kit and Breastfeeding Survival Kit help women feel more prepared for those early weeks of motherhood. Be motherhood prepared and shop Frida at Amazon, Target, and Walmart today.

• 0:43Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Caregiving is one of the biggest sources of stress for parents today. The data shows that most parents spend nearly every waking hour focused on someone else. And if you feel depleted, that's not failure. That's the reality of how much you're carrying. Another thing the data tells us is this: almost three quarters of parents say having a stronger network of trusted caregivers would improve their mental and emotional health. And I see that play out all the time. When parents have real support, the mental load lightens a bit, and they become more present, calmer, and more regulated. Care.com makes it easier to find that kind of support with background-checked caregivers, reviews, and filters for the exact skills you're looking for, whether it's infant care, before or after-school help, camps, daycares, or senior care.

• 1:27Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And right now, Care.com is offering something they've never offered before. For a limited time, use the code GOOD35 to get 35% off a premium membership, plus a free subscription to Headspace. Because when you have support, you can show up as your best self for the people you care for and for yourself. There are some topics in parenting that feel especially loaded, that make our heart race. And food, eating disorders, those are two of them. This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and I really wanted to create space for a conversation that feels empowering, steady, relieving, actually helpful.

• 2:08Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Not sensational, not fear-driven, not filled with rules and morality. Eating disorders and disordered eating are far more common than most of us realize. They affect an estimated 30 million Americans over the course of their lifetime, which means if you're listening to this, this topic probably touches your life. As a parent, maybe in your childhood, or as a partner or friend. Today, I'm joined by Dr. Erin Parks. Erin is a clinical psychologist who specializes in eating disorders. She works every day with teens and families navigating these concerns. And importantly, Erin and I both struggled with eating disorders in our earlier years. So this is personal to both of us.

• 2:53Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Erin is thoughtful, grounded, and tuned in to the deep emotional experience underneath food struggles. This conversation isn't about diagnosing your child. And it's definitely not about perfect meals or saying the perfect thing. It's about understanding, understanding what's really happening underneath, understanding what our job is as a parent, and understanding next steps we might take. I have a feeling that at the end of this episode, you're going to feel more oriented, more aware, more empowered, not more panicked. And I'm so excited for you to meet Dr. Erin Parks. I'm Dr. Becky, and this is Good Inside.

• 3:35Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Okay, so many things I want to ask you, but I just want to kind of ground this conversation around eating disorders, disordered eating, with what you're really seeing right now with families, teens, younger kids around food. Like, what is showing up most? And what's kind of most pressing, most relevant right now?

• 3:55Speaker 01

  I think the two things is that, first of all, it's increasing and more of it. And I hear parents worrying about either their child's picky eating. Is this a problem? Is this not a problem? It seems to be getting worse. Or about how their kids are feeling about their bodies and trying to eat healthier and control what they eat. The parents are asking me, should I worry or should I be celebrating? So the two things I'm probably hearing the most.

• 4:20Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Increase in picky eating.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Increase in picky eating.

• 4:23Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And in eating disorders?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  And in eating disorders.

• 4:25Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  The rates of eating disorders have been steady for about 100 years. And since 2020 have been going up, up and up.

• 4:33Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And then this other category of things, not to say that there's not overlap, I just want to see if I'm getting this right to mirror back, is there's this category of like, my kid wants to eat healthier and is is healthy something to celebrate, is healthy sometimes a cover for control or rigidity, is that kind of the debate, the space you're seeing a lot of as well?

• 4:51Speaker 01

  Exactly, because there's so much content coming out right now about the correct way to eat, the correct way to feed your kid, and I'm having parents say to me, my kid is freaking out because they're like, if kale is healthier than spinach, should I not eat spinach and only eat kale? And they want to do the right thing as parents, and then the kids want to do the right thing as kids, and yet, what is right is very much in air quotes, because there is no one right way to eat.

• 5:16Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I want to actually take what you said in the categories then and maybe jump into them one at a time. Let's start with what you just ended with, healthy eating, or rules around eating, or one of the things I think about a lot is morality around eating. Right? I always think with parents, it's like morality is often the thing we want to avoid, right? What are the good foods, right? What is it kale and spinach, or is it no carb, or no this, or fat, or there's always some latest thing? And so just when a parent comes to you and they're like, is this something I should be concerned about, or how should I intervene? Just walk me through, like if I'm saying that to you, okay, I'm seeing my kid come, I don't buy that anymore, and this isn't good, and I read this thing online, I saw this thing on TikTok, my friends aren't eating this food anymore, and I'm saying to you, okay, is this a good thing? Is my kid becoming more empowered?

• 6:01Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Is this a concerning thing? Just talk to me.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  By the time a parent asks me, even if it's just on the soccer field, is this a problem? Answers almost always yes. I really can count on one hand how many times the answer is no. There's something about us as parents that when our gut says something is off about food, we don't listen to it right away. Because we're consuming the same diet culture. We've been drinking from this fountain of look different, look younger, be smaller, since we were also born. And so when we see these behaviors in our kid, our gut says something's wrong, and then we start saying, okay, it's probably just a phase, probably making too big of a deal out of it. So by the time I finally say it out loud to someone, the answer is yes, yes, you should be trusting your gut, yes, something is off.

• 6:47Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah. My guess is also, it's not always a binary. No, it's not a problem. Yes, it is a problem. Hey, there's something rising to the level of your gut. Thing, you're thinking about it, you're wondering about it, like, let's just be more curious about it. Let's look into that together as opposed to either or?

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Exactly. So if your child is saying, I want to eat healthier, and what that looks like is they start eating a wider variety of food. They start eating what you are eating at dinner. They start ordering new things on the menu when you go out to a restaurant. That probably doesn't make you worry, and that is a form of eating healthier. But when your child says they want to eat healthier, and they're no longer eating birthday cake at their cousin's birthday party, they are stopping eating their favorite foods, you're concerned they might be losing weight. That's when your gut is saying, wait, this eating healthier isn't a good thing. So your gut naturally goes off when you're picking up on them taking away things they used to do, instead of simply adding.

• 7:47Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And I'm just picturing, I'm picturing this parent with this kid. What comes next? Like, let's say a parent's thinking, okay, this whole shift is maybe under the cover. It's been labeled healthy, but there's something in me saying, I don't know, seems a little different from just that. Do I, do I just notice for a couple of weeks? Do I collect some kind of data? Do I talk to my kid right away? If I do, you know, what would that be? I'm going to put out another option. Do I say, I made an appointment with a, with a therapist, nutritionist, and you need to do that? Like, how, what are the next steps?

• 8:20Speaker 01

  I would talk about it frequently, and I would start now, because it's something that all of us are constantly receiving information about how we should eat, how our bodies should look. And so it can also be a constant conversation in your home. So when your kid tells you they want to be healthier, I usually ask, well, tell me what that means. I'd love to help. We all want to be healthy. Healthier can mean going to bed at an earlier time, which is usually not what a teenager means when they say they want to eat healthier or be healthier. But reminding people that eating healthier is one aspect of health, and seeing is health what they're really after. I also like to ask them why. And I will hear things like, oh, I want to be faster at my sport, or, well,

• 9:02Speaker 01

  I don't really know, but everyone's just, I mean, I should, shouldn't I? And that tells me something, too. This I should, they're already shoulding themselves. They're already deciding that there's a good way to be and a bad way to be, and they think that eating a certain way, and it goes to your earlier point around the morality of food. And we need, I'm, I mean, I am a human who grew up in America and a woman who's trying to embrace aging while not wanting to age, right? So I get the mixed messages that we all receive. But it's, it's really, really difficult. And we accidentally say, I ate well, I ate poorly. I, oh, I'm gonna eat so poorly at the Super Bowl party, or I ate bad at the party. And so kids are around this moralization.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  And the behavior that they claim to want, like eat healthier, be healthier, is sometimes about trying to be perfect, to be better.

• 9:54Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yep.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Find a binary that doesn't really exist.

• 9:56Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I, I just want to double click on this morality thing because I know I've talked to parents who will say to me, and I'm sure you hear this all the time, but sugar is bad. But, um, I, my kid doesn't have celiac, but gluten is bad. Gluten leads to inflammation. And, and I'm not here to debate any of those truths, but I'm sure that comes up a lot, where how, how do I figure out food and morality? Especially if there are families and adults who, who really do believe and, and maybe with good data, like, but, but why can't we talk about things as good or bad if there's certain data or science to support that? How do you manage? I'm sure, and do you see that?

• 10:36Speaker 01

  I see it constantly. I mean, I live in Southern California, like land of no sugar and no gluten. It's hard. I really, really personally struggle with it because I remember the 90s when bagels were a healthy breakfast item and I miss it. My 14-year-old son came home and he's newly at high school and I can feel him picking some stuff up and he has been more cautious around the sugar. And so I asked him, I'm like, Max, what's going on here? And he's like, I'm like, I know of friends who just don't eat sugar.

• 11:07Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  And you seem to feed us so much sugar. And I'm like, you're welcome, is what you should. I would like to hear a thank you. No, but I, kids want to do the right thing. And so when I talk to other kids or parents about it, I remind them that while you are still developing, the number one thing you need is calories. Period. And where are calories? They're in sugar. They're in carbs. That's where calories are. If you were anemic, I would be figuring out how to get you more iron. But what you are doing is going through growth spurts.

• 11:38Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  They have so much movement between walking to classes and all the activities they're in and the sports. And they are growing. So what they need is calories. So the healthiest thing is calories and the easiest way to get that for them is carbs and sugar. If as a family, you're deciding to be gluten free or sugar free.

• 11:53Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  There are all sorts of different ways to feed your kids. We do a lot of cancer metaphors in the eating disorder community. And I like to remind people that we would never give our child poison unless they had cancer and needed chemotherapy. So similarly, if in your household, you're like, we don't eat gluten or we don't eat sugar. But I'm going to make this change because my child now needs something. That is different because they've developed an eating disorder or their disordered eating is making us worried about their health.

• 12:22Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I think that's really helpful. And, and one more level practical for the parents who are thinking, how do I manage a situation actively where it's true, my kid notices I'm not eating a certain thing. But I don't want that to be fully absorbed by them. Like what language do you recommend people use? Or what type of conversation starters?

• 12:39Speaker 01

  I think it's two things. Sometimes it's what you say and sometimes it's adjusting your behaviors. My child once saw me not finish a milkshake and I heard about it for a month. You know, he knows that I have struggled with disordered eating before and eating disorder before. And it made him hyper aware and I had no idea that he knew any of these things, that he even paid attention to what I did for a living. And so they're always observing even when we think they aren't.

• 13:04Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  So sometimes the solution is to talk to them about it and say, hey, you know, I use the sports metaphors as well. You're going to have kids on your soccer team who have knee issues. They're going to do stretches that you don't do before and after practice. And that kind of stinks for them. Like they have to spend this extra 30 minutes doing this and that. That is what they have to do because of their knee issue. Well, maybe there are people in our household who eat different for different reasons. Maybe dad is watching his cholesterol for health reasons and so he has eliminated some foods. That's what he has to do. And though sometimes the solution is also examining your own food habits and the ways in which they're communicating things you don't want your kids absorbing.

• 13:42Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I, I just want to say, Erin, I really love.

• 13:45Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  The very reality-based part of that answer. And there are times when, yes, we can label it to our kids. You're right, I'm not eating this and I have my reasons. And look in our family in general. We believe that the way I do things shouldn't always be the way you do things. We actually love the way you guys do things differently as kids. And then there's other times where it is true. If you never eat certain types of food or if it feels very rigid, that behavior sometimes speaks louder than anything we say. And if you have a kid who's especially observant or especially people-pleasing or especially looking at me all the time and becoming rigid, sometimes there's nothing that I can say that's going to be as powerful to my kid as saying, "I'm gonna have dessert tonight." Right? And, and there's a reality of that, that I think it's like okay to just name.

• 14:29Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  So we're kind of along this topic and I want to transition to it. Control. How do you see the relationship between disordered eating, eating disorders proper, control? What? Are there any signs that a kid way before eating stuff develops might be prone to them, given their relationship with control in general?

• 14:49Speaker 01

  A lot of people who struggle with eating disorders also struggle with anxiety. So they want to do things right. They want to do things perfectly. So that might be something you see early on. They see anxiety around perfectionism, anxiety rigidity. We also see something, it's a fancy word for knowing when you need to pee, but this altered interoceptive awareness. So these are the kids who can play sports through an injury. They can stay up studying through the fatigue. They can ignore the calls and the social plans of their friends and just keep working on that project. That is an incredible skill. I think a lot of success comes from having this tunnel vision. And if you take that tunnel vision and direct it towards changing your body

• 15:34Speaker 01

  or changing the number on a scale, that's exactly what I think is so hard as a parent is you're like, I want to praise that they stayed in the gym the extra hour. I want to praise that they stayed up late working on that project. And at what point are we praising? Behaviors that we don't want to see in ourselves as adults. We all talk about trying to figure out how to turn off, about how to know our own intrinsic worth. But what we're doing is praising behaviors that can lead to burnout, can lead to an eating disorder. I really caution people around exercise. When you see your kid exercising despite having an injury, exercising longer than their friends, especially in boys and men. So I just want to remind people that 40% of people with eating disorders are male.

• 16:18Speaker 01

  So this is affecting teen boys just as much as teen girls. But it's usually missed in boys because when a boy stays longer in the gym, it's praised. And then especially if you're at the gym instead of going to a social activity, what's better for a 15-year-old's development than going and seeing friends in person? Something we want all of our kids to do more of, not being in the gym.

• 16:37Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And look, and just for all the parents listening, right? I think, look, there's part of that, that of course at moments you're going to say, wow, you're working really hard, right? So I think, again, and I think we're similar, no rigidity there either as a parent. But it's just such a good moment as a parent to pause and say, okay, if I have a kid like that, and it's like, oh, my goodness, Erin, are you talking about my kid? Huh, is there just a nuance there I want to reflect on? Even if I don't change anything yet, yeah, it's kind of amazing. My kid pushes past the type of signal or pain that would stop someone else in their tracks. That can be used as a superpower, but, ooh, that also, that could flip on them too. And if I think about it in that nuanced way,

• 17:20Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  maybe there are moments, instead of just praising, I say, hold on a second.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  One of the things that's unique about eating disorders is we haven't really found a gene, per se, that's passed from parent to kids. But we know it's very heritable, like 86%, I want to say 85, 86. But what we have found is that it's a neurobiological-based illness. And so that the pathways in the brain that are in charge of things, like interoceptive awareness, attention to detail, that is what's being passed on. So if your kid has these behaviors, there's really high chances you do too.

• 17:51Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 01

  And it gives you an opportunity to say, like, I'm sure our children have seen both of us push through fatigue and get work done. And I'm proud of that. I'm glad that they've been able to see that. But how can I also make sure I'm saying to them? I'm burnt out and I'm exhausted. Mom's been on too many planes. Mom stayed up too late, too many nights in a row. I'm going to go hang out with my sisters. I'm going to skip work tomorrow and do something fun. And so it's modeling for them, figuring out when to use it as a superpower and when it's starting to hurt my quality of life.

• 18:29Dr. Becky Kennedy?

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• 20:38Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Can you help us understand? I know, parents, they see a kid restricting, obsessing about food, binging, these things that logically, it feels like, "Why are you doing that? Like, stop doing that." But there's something kids are getting from that, or something it's doing.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  One of my favorite things and how I fell into eating disorders is because they really are about regulating emotions. And as someone who has very big emotions, I love just the honest talking about the ways in which eating disorder behaviors really serve people. They work until they don't work anymore. So what we see from a lot of the kids and teenagers that we work with is that they experience the same emotions as everyone else, but just at a louder volume. And if you are genetically predisposed to have an eating disorder, and you might find that when you're really stressed out, not eating actually makes you feel better. So for most people, if you don't eat, you maybe get hangry, you get grumpy. But for people who are prone to have an eating disorder, not eating actually relaxes you.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  I tell parents, I'm like, "Imagine you're going to go onstage and give a presentation to 100 people, 500 people, whatever's going to terrify you. And if someone offered you your favorite breakfast right before you went onstage, you'd be like, absolutely not. Your stomach would be in knots. You want to eat that afterwards." Well, that's what the stomach of someone with an eating disorder or who's prone to have an eating disorder often feels like. So not eating actually relaxes them, regulates their emotion.

• 22:02Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  For kids who struggle with binge eating and purging behaviors, they also tend to also struggle with self-harm behaviors. When they feel that really big emotion, making themselves vomit numbs them out instantly. It just brings them from a 10 out of 10 to a zero. Now usually shame comes after that and then they're back on the wheel of having really high emotions, but really reminding parents that these are serving a purpose and not to vilify them. Even in the eating disorder community, people are like, well, I have anorexia. That's the good eating disorder. Whereas, you know, bulimia, making yourself vomit is the bad eating disorder. That is not true. And I tell parents, if you think your kid is vomiting, they are. By the time you think that they are, they are. Because eating disorders are so secretive, but don't freak out. Don't act as though that's the worst thing your

• 22:47Speaker 01

  kid could ever do. There are no worse eating disorder behaviors and they're serving a purpose for them. So give them an opportunity to share with you when it's coming up and let's help them to not given on that urge.

• 23:00Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah. And just as a metaphor there, like I think about how many of us, I don't know, we scroll on our phone at night, even though obviously we know that's not a good idea. Or we're saying, we're going to go to the gym in the morning, but we snooze and we're like, well, I didn't do that, even though we know it would have made us feel better. And, you know, approaching that, if someone came to us and was like, why are you, why are you on your phone? You know not to be on your phone. Why are you snoozing? Like, obviously go to the gym. I don't know anyone who's like, that is, that is so helpful. I'm now going to change my behavior. Like, thank you. No. Right? And actually, what helps us change the behavior, because also so many of us can be self-critical, right? Is, okay, being on my phone at night must do something for me. What is that? Right? That's the start of, well, could I get that from somewhere else? Or what am I looking

• 23:43Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  for? Snoozing in the morning, like, what's going on there? Beyond maybe being tired? Is it, do I feel bad about my body when I go to the gym? And I kind of want to avoid that feeling. Like, we also regulate our emotions through maladaptive behaviors, right? And that carries, it's a practice to be curious. And I think what you're saying with restricting, binging, purging, on the surface, if we meet it with, why are you doing that? That doesn't make sense. We're actually not getting to the source. Like, what is this doing for my kid? Doesn't make you permissive. It actually makes you able to start figuring it out.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  And how can you help do that for them until they have the skills to do it?

• 24:17Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Say more.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  It goes back to kind of what you were saying about control. People think, I am going to get control of my thoughts by controlling my food. All I think about is my body. All I think about is food. You know what? I'm gonna start controlling exactly what I eat and that will make my thoughts go away. That is the the lie of eating disorders because it just makes it worse and worse and worse. And soon you're, you know, I had a mom call me once and her child is 15, had just gotten back from residential. She's like, Erin, she is sobbing because she can't figure out if it's 15 blueberries or a third a couple of blueberries because apparently 16 fit in there and she doesn't know what she should eat. And that's an example of the eating disorder is actually in control. And so what parents do to help their child recover from an eating disorder

• 25:00Speaker 01

  is the parents take control of eating. You don't have to think about this anymore. I'm going to tell you what you're eating for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner. You don't have to like it. You do not have to compliment me and you are even allowed to swear during it. I'm going to sit next to you and provide comfort while you do this hard thing. You've been using restricting to help regulate your emotions. I'm going to help you regulate them in a different way until you have those skills.

• 25:22Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yep. Kind of, and this is always my favorite metaphor, but, oh, you're actually showing me you can't be the pilot of your food plane anymore.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 25:31Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Is that what it is?

• 25:32Speaker 01

  Yes, I absolutely love that.

• 25:33Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  It's not because you're a bad person and it's not because you won't be able to again, but I can see that. And so I'm stepping in because I love you and I want to keep you safe and I'm going to pilot this until you can take the reins again.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  I absolutely love that. And I'm going to use that because most parents call me and they say, I need to not be involved in their treatment because I will make it worse because my teen tells me they don't want me there because this is about control. So I should give them the control to get through their eating disorder. And I remind them, your kiddo can't do this. Like, if your child was struggling with substance use, you wouldn't sit and wait for them to take the alcohol out of the house. You would go and get all the alcohol out of the house.

• 26:12Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I'm gonna write that one down.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  Yes. And we talked to 50 different teenagers who started our family-based program and zero of them wanted their parents involved, which is totally normal. And I said to their parents, I'm like, you should be happy. That is a developmentally appropriate response. But when I asked the parents, why do you think your teen doesn't want you involved? The parents are like, they think I'm gonna make it worse. They think I don't know what I'm doing. They hate me. Oh, I got emotional here. When I asked the teens why you don't want your parents involved, they say, I don't want them to know how bad it is and I don't want them to worry. And when parents know that, they're like, get out of the way, I'm coming in. At the end of the study, all of them except one were so glad their parents were involved.

• 26:54Speaker 01

  And they also said, I wish they'd gotten involved earlier.

• 26:58Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Aaron.

• 26:59Speaker 01

  And it was incredible because every parent was thinking, am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Is this just a phase? Am I making it worse by getting worried or bringing them in to see you? And in the end, every kid said, I needed my parents sooner.

• 27:13Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  You know, I think a lot about being long-term greedy as a parent. Right? Not maximizing or optimizing for immediate ease or happiness, right? But as a parent, like I'm, I'm thinking about who my kid's going to be. Five months from now, five years from now, 15 years from now. And I think with this type of treatment, it's, it's, it's short-term thinking, which we all have. They're going to be mad at me. Okay. Long-term greed would actually say, hold on, I want to maximize my kid's emotional health, physical health, I'm willing to put up with. Yeah, they might be short-term pissed, but like I, I love my kid in this long-term way. And I want to set them up and that can maybe help push past a little bit.

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Yes. Families talk about being stronger also when they get through treatment. And the parents also say they're like, I am so much more emotionally regulated than I was before. It, it does take something special to tolerate your kids not liking you. Especially when it's multiple days and weeks and months in a row, sometimes it was eating disorder treatment can be. Um, but I love that the long-term greedy, the reward is there. You both get a healthy kid, but you also have a kid that is so grateful that you helped them get well.

• 28:16Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  You know, one of my, when my kids were younger, one of the things I would say around our own screen time rules or bedtime rules, but it's kind of the same thing is like, my number one job is to keep you safe. And also it's to kind of make decisions that I believe are good for you long-term, even if you're pissed at me in the moment. And I'm just going to say this, I love you enough to make those types of decisions. And this is one of those moments. And I, I kind of felt like a badass every time I was saying like, I'd have to like work myself up. But then I heard myself say it. And by the way, just to be clear, it wasn't like the kids were like, that was, that was really an A plus mom. No, they, they then do the thing. They're like, you're annoying all my friends, whatever. But if you kind of set yourself up instead of in an apologetic way, in this like bold way.

• 28:58Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  I, I feel like I was then ready. I was like, okay, so I said my part, you're going to do your part. You're going to complain short-term. Everything's going according to plan. Um, and we're just going to, you know, keep walking down that path.

• 29:08Speaker 01

  I think one of the most.

• 29:10Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Memorable moments of my private practice. I can picture her in this moment exactly is this. And it's not eating disorder related, but I, but I think there's such a parallel. She's 15 or 16 and then she came after she was cutting that referred and I was asked her first session, how long has this been happening? Two years. I was the first therapist she saw. And I said to her, okay, well, your parents, you told me also have known, like, how come you didn't see a therapist? Just curious, you know, me or anyone. She goes, oh, well, I told my parents. She was so snarky. I told my parents, oh, so you think I'm fucked up? I'm the messed up one in the family and I'm just gonna go and lie or not talk and I'm gonna waste all your money.

• 29:52Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And Erin, my heart always raises, but okay, because same thing, I think. She then just got silent and like her whole demeanor changed and she looked up at me after like a minute and I just kind of, for some reason, knew to like shut my mouth. She's like, can you believe they let me make that decision? It was from this like snarky teen to this, I'm also crying, like this really young, like, and can you believe they let me pilot the plane when I was showing in clear as day sign that I couldn't do it? And my rude words were enough for them to take their hands off the wheel?

• 30:36Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Like, and, and I, I always think about that because I think we take, I respect kids deeply, but we take their snark like way too seriously. And under it is so often such desperation and shame and fear. And, and by the way, I don't think it's teen, like we're, in our worst moments, we just want someone to kind of say, I'm not taking this at face value because I love the heck out of you and, and you need a different level of help.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  My favorite to go to a hopeful story and why I'm just always like, parents be involved, be involved, be involved, be involved. Like, don't think that your absence is what your kid needs. It's, it's your presence. There was a child who was trying to weight restore and she needed to have about 3,500 calories a day to weight restore, which is pretty normal. If you don't have an eating disorder, you only need a couple of extra hundred calories a day. But if you do, you become hyper metabolic and you need to eat a lot. And they could not figure out how to get enough calories on her. And so she had been the same weight for, I don't know, eight weeks. And the mom and dad were just kind of scratching their heads. And one day, the dad came into my office, he's like, "I figured it out!" He was so triumphant. And he realized, we'd been talking about the neurobiology of eating disorders and how

• 31:46Speaker 01

  consequences are more salient than rewards when someone struggles with anorexia. And that's why we play through the pain. That's why we stay up studying, because you got to get that A. And he's like, "I figured it out. You know what's a big consequence? Is when she shows up late for school and everyone in first period turns and looks at her when she comes in." So I started making this high caloric shake. It was like an 800 calorie smoothie. And then he's like, "I drove her to school every single day of the week." And he's like, "I'd say to her, 'Hey, listen, I don't have any meetings until 9:45, so I can stay in the car with you as long as it takes to finish your smoothie. I talked to the school counselor. You can walk into first period late, finish that smoothie in seven minutes every single day.'" Never got late to first period. But what

• 32:28Speaker 01

  was great about it is I didn't give them that idea, because I don't know their child as well as they know their child. And so empowering parents to be, remember that they are this child's parent. They are the one that can help them get better.

• 32:40Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Go back to what you're saying about cancer. Like, I don't know any parent, he's like, "My kid doesn't want chemo." But they're 16, and one day, they're going to have to figure it out by themselves. And so I'm going to let them make this decision. Like, I've never heard that.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  Never, never.

• 32:50Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Right?

• 32:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 32:51Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  We are kind of talking about, and I know we think a lot about Good Inside, about boundaries as part of our role. And I think the big difference, and it's so many of us experience this so differently that we have to reformulate it in our head, is that these type of boundaries and assertion of what I think is parental authority without aggression is not something you do to your kid. It's something you do for your kid. And I think your whole model of eating disorder treatment, it's something you're doing for your kid.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  You do it for them, and you do it with them, and you go through it together. You know, I talk with families, when your kid is in crisis, whether it's depression or an eating disorder. Self harm. I'm like, choose two things like I don't want to hear about their grades improving or they're not swearing in front of their little brother or right? And one of the first things that goes is the no phones at the dinner table rule. And I'm like, if they need to, I don't know, watch Gilmore Girls on their phone in order to distract themselves to eat the meal, then that's what they should do. And you're going to do it with them. You're going to figure it out. You're going to sit and watch the show with them, get engrossed in something.

• 33:48Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Now, let me ask you, you know, we focus a lot on repair at Good Inside. For the parent listening who's thinking, shoot, shoot, I've missed it. What do you, what do you want to say to them or where do they start?

• 33:59Speaker 01

  So first be so, so kind to yourself because you have been raised in this culture, this culture that, well, also, if you're a parent, you are, after having dealt with the be smaller, you know, look different, meet America's ideals of beauty, you're now also hitting the don't age, don't age, don't age, something that there's nothing we can do about.

• 34:20Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  We can't live forever.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  We can't live forever. Yeah. So just be kind to yourself. And calling it out is the best thing that you can do for your whole family. And again, and again, and again, and again, you can say, oh, you know, when I had that ice cream last night with you, I noticed my old thoughts of feeling bad about it come up. I mean, I'll give an example with, actually my nine, when my son was nine, my eldest son was nine, this story just gets me still. He came home and actually we were getting ready for bed. So he was like in his underwear. This is still the days when the underwear was like colorful or had characters on it. They're so old now, the kids, but when he was nine and he grabbed his belly and said, I want to get rid of this. I heard that cold showers would help.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  And the first emotion I felt was anger. I'm like, how did this get in my house? Right? He's a nine year old boy being raised by a parent who specializes in eating disorders. And so I want all parents to know that even someone who's worked so hard for all foods fit. The kids see me eat all different foods. It's going to get there because the culture, the society, their peers, it is everywhere. So, so don't, don't get too mad at yourself and you have this incredible ability to model. That all foods fit, that you can change your behaviors, that just because you did something once doesn't mean you have to do it again.

• 35:38Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yeah, you know, someone said to me, it's like a proverb, I can't remember who originally said it, but like, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is right now. You know, the other thing I just want to give parents listening who feel like it's too late is I feel like when we're in it's too late mode, we're doing the thing we all do. We look back and we think about all, I could have done that and that was a sign and I didn't pay attention to that in the way I wish I did. And we all do that and I don't think we could take that away, but what we don't add, I think, is this gaze forward. Where we're like, okay, my kid is 13, my kid is 23, whatever, however old they are. There's actually so many more years ahead than behind. And that's not to convince myself out of my guilt, but just to add, okay, like, I'm actually a lot earlier today than I am 10 years from now than I am.

• 36:22Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And, and there's, I think there's like, hope and like, a balance to that, too.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, my mom still wants me to be happy today, just like she did when I was 14. My mom still wants me to enjoy my life today and so that'll be true, too. And that story with Max, like, what I, I had to tell my anger to move to the side for a second, but it was an opportunity for me to say to him, hey, did someone say something to you about your belly or is it something that you say to yourself? And he's like, I say to myself. And I got to say, I'm like, you know, my brain says a lot of bad things about my body to me sometimes, too. He's like, really? And I'm like, yeah. And then we talked about like, how do we talk back to our brain when our brain's kind of a jerk? So it's, it's the same skills we use for other things, but it was really an opportunity to remind our kids that this is a human condition.

• 37:08Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yes.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  I think a lot of parents are tempted, as I am, to say, what? No, you're not fat. You're beautiful. And instantly correct their thought for them, which, as you said, doesn't work, but additionally, it then signals that there's a right and wrong. There are kids that come in all shapes and sizes and might grow up to be an adult of all shapes and sizes.

• 37:31Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Yes.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  I remind my children that it would be nuts to be like, let's change your shoe size. No one's trying to change their shoe size. And they're like, this is a, wow, mom, what are you getting at? Right? They get very annoyed. But, um, and yet, we try to change everything else, our hair, our skin, our body shape, our weight.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  And just reminding people the futility of it. So if you instantly tell your child, no, they are not fat and they are beautiful. You've now told them that beautiful means not fat and they aren't that. Well, they've got, as you said, Becky, a lot of life left. And one of the only inevitable things is that we are going to age and our bodies are supposed to change weight as we age.

• 38:13Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  You know, I'll never forget something my supervisor said to me once when I was in my postdoc and I was working on an eating disorders team. And we were talking about our own relationships, our bodies, part of, you know, supervision. And she said, you know, it's interesting. I grew up and I was never a big fan of my body. But she's like, I grew up in a family where, and we kind of talked about this idea of like your pie chart of self-worth. And if your body doesn't make up the hugest percentage of it, like, okay, I don't like my body right now. Like, okay, moving on. And she said she got married. Her husband said to her, you might not be your own type. Oh, and it was like so beautiful to think about, maybe we are not all, at all points in our life, going to say, I love my body.

• 38:57Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Maybe I don't love my shoe size. I don't know if I'm obsessed with my height. I'm 5'1" on a good day. I'd like a few more inches, you know? But as long as that, or my relationship with my belly, or my arms, isn't like such a huge percentage of that pie chart, I can move about the world in a freer way.

• 39:15Speaker 01

  Oh, I really, really love that. The goal isn't for our children to always like their bodies. Our goal is for our children to navigate the world and find joy more of the time than not.

• 39:26Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  When you said that, that gave me chills. And like, the goal isn't right for our children to always like their bodies. The goal is for our children to try to like themselves amidst a whole range of challenging experiences and feelings they're going to have in a million different areas for the rest of their life. Can you talk a little about the importance of kind of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week? I think that's, I'd love you to highlight that.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Yes. So a couple of things. I mentioned that 40% of people who have eating disorders are male. And I say that as often as I can because men are being overlooked. Once we started treating patients of all ages, the number of 40-year-old men who sought treatment, who had wanted to get care for decades, but didn't feel like there was any place safe to go, thought that eating disorders were just a girl disorder. So I want to say that. So Eating Disorder Awareness Week helps remind people that everyone gets eating disorders. People of all ages, all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities, all races. I think another thing that's important is that if you are having any concerns, that means there probably is a problem. On a medical inpatient unit where I used to work, which is similar to all medical inpatient

• 40:31Speaker 01

  units across the country, half of the kids who end up on a medical inpatient unit, they're there, one, because their heart rate drops below 45 because they have become malnourished, and they don't have an eating disorder diagnosis, and most have been sick for less than three or four months. So just want to remind people that eating disorders happen so fast, they thrive in secrecy. So, parents, if your gut is saying, something's off, then you're right. I remind people that bad things don't happen for asking your kid. If you think your kid's vomiting, ask, "Are you vomiting?" So many people will say to me, "I think my kid is vomiting." And I say, "What did they say when you asked them?" They're like, "I didn't ask them." What are the reasons you don't ask them?

• 41:14Speaker 01

  They'll make it more secret if I ask them, or maybe they're not doing it and they'll start doing it, or maybe they'll get mad at me. Most of the time when you ask your kid, they tell you the truth and they're so relieved someone asked. So, Eating Disorder Awareness Week is telling parents, "Trust your gut, trust your gut. No one knows your kid as well as you, and there's real reasons to act quickly. Eating disorders are the second deadliest mental illness, and since they happen so fast in kids, there's no such thing as getting treatment too early."

• 41:43Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  You know, I'm thinking about this Mr. Rogers quote I've always loved, when you say, "Ask. If it's nameable, it's knowable."

• 41:49Speaker 01

  Love that.

• 41:50Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Your kid might say no, but you're also probably gonna get a parent sense in their response, right?

• 41:57Speaker 01

  And you also can ask things more than once. There's no, I mean, I think about how often I ask my other son Sam if he turned in his homework. I never thought, like, I'm only allowed to ask that once.

• 42:06Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  Let's end with this. A parent is listening right now, feeling, and I imagine there's a mix of more empowered, more knowledgeable, maybe also scared, ashamed, worried. What would you, what would you most want them to know?

• 42:19Speaker 01

  They hold the key to everything being okay. It is all within their control. They've got this. Bring in a village, use your village, talk to your kid, talk to your pediatrician, talk to an expert. There are outstanding treatments for eating disorders, outstanding medications. Your child will get through this, just like they get through anything else, and they're gonna get through it with you, and probably because of you.

• 42:47Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  There are so many things that stand out from my conversation with Dr. Aaron Parks, but the thing that's loudest for me right now, and I just wanted to share with you, is remembering that it's not too late. That if you have a gut sense of, "Ooh, is this a problem?", it probably is something to pay attention to in that we are optimizing for our kids' health and their long-term mental health, not the immediate moment about whether or not they're happy with us. That really, really stuck with me, and I find that really empowering, and I hope you do too. All right, let's end the way we always do. Place your feet on the ground. Place a hand on your heart.

• 43:29Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  And let's remind ourselves, even as we struggle on the outside, we remain good inside. I'll see you soon.

• 43:43Dr. Becky Kennedy?

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• 44:24Dr. Becky Kennedy?

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• 45:04Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  You know that feeling when your brain is at full capacity, right? I mean, you have a reminder from the dentist in your email, a birthday party invitation on the fridge, and your kid just texted you about a soccer game they forgot to mention until that moment, and you just cannot remember one more thing.

• 45:20Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  That's where Skylight Calendar comes in. It's an all-in-one digital smart calendar that syncs with Google, Apple, and Outlook to help your whole family see the days and weeks ahead. And I really love the Tasks feature, which is designed to help your kid build routines around things like homework and chores. And when your kid can do those things independently, it's a huge win for everyone in the family. Skylight Calendar is so much more than just a calendar. It's something you can add to your routine to help your family work together. And right now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15-inch calendars by going to myskylight.com/becky.

• 46:00Dr. Becky Kennedy?

  That's M-Y-S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T.com/becky for $30 off your 15-inch calendar. myskylight.com/becky.