ABSTRACT
Nowadays, with all the publicity about eating disorders and the apparent increase in their incidence, many parents worry that their child has an eating disorder. As discussed in Chapter 1, there are many variations on ‘normal eating’, which although they may cause concern, are not really a problem. In this chapter we discuss what should alert parents to the possibility of an eating disorder and what they should look out for. We will try to provide some ideas about how to distinguish between normal variations in eating behaviour and changes that are more worrying. Clearly, there is a bit of a grey area between the two. Although some-times it will be obvious that a child or a teenager has eating difficulties, this is not always the case. Often the problems are hidden or not acknowledged. Parents are frequently surprised by the extent to which their child has been able to hide changes in their feelings and behaviour.
