Eating Disorders Program

Who we are

Eating disorders can be extremely hard on both a teen and on her family. Here at Boston Children’s Hospital, our Eating Disorders Program unites specialists in Adolescent Medicine, Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work and Nutrition to care for your child’s unique, specific needs, from the medical to the nutritional and psychological.

Each year, we care for more than 200 adolescents struggling with anorexia nervosa, bulimia and related eating disorders. We have a range of services available to help teens, including consultation, medical evaluation, medical treatment, mental health consultation, nutrition evaluation and counseling, and psychiatric evaluation.

Health and your community

We all know that good nutritional habits and adequate exercise are key to staying healthy, but it’s been less clearly understood how social and physical environments play into these goals. Children’s researchers are investigating how school and community settings affect adolescent nutrition, physical activity and risk of eating disorders – and working to design and evaluate school- and community-based interventions and preventive measures that encourage healthy nutritional habits.

Youth and media

Everywhere young people look, they’re bombarded with images generated by the media of what they “should” look like. Almost always, these images have been manipulated and touched up. Today’s youth see these pictures everywhere, from the covers of their favorite magazines to ads on TV, and it’s clear that these images can cause children to have low self-esteem and, in some cases, develop eating disorders and other serious health problems. Learn more about Children’s Center on Media and Child Health.