Inpatient Eating Disorder Program

When your child has medical issues due to an eating disorder, it is important to stabilize them as quickly and safely as possible. The Eating Disorder Medical Stabilization Program at CHOC at Mission Hospital provides inpatient care for children and adolescents with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (AFRID). Eating disorders are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of all genders, ages, races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, body shapes, and weights.

What to Expect: Preparing for Your Stay

At CHOC, our board-certified pediatricians and psychiatrists understand the specialized expertise and multidisciplinary approach needed to care for eating disorders. Depending on your child’s condition, your appointment may include CHOC experts from our many specialties, such as adolescent medicine, psychology, psychiatry and nutrition. Treating eating disorders in adolescents and young adults can be complex and often requires a team of caregivers. We work with patients who have serious medical complications and/or are severely underweight and require medical and nutrition intervention and monitoring under expert care. The average length of stay in our program is 2-3 weeks. Every day, our care team will:

• Prescribe and monitor the appropriate activity level to support your child. All patients are initially on bed rest.
• Closely monitor vital signs and weight as well as nutritional intake.
• Our dietitians will partner closely with you to provide your child the food they need to recover.
• Therapeutic group meals, music therapy, art therapy and child life activity groups
• Physical therapy, complete physical exam and lab testing

Family Resources

Our goal is to empower parents with education and skills to be able to support your child following discharge from our program. Parents are considered an essential part of a child’s care team, from admittance to recovery. During your child’s stay, the following family resources are available:

• Access to the Ronald McDonald Family Room, a space for parents to rest, eat and shower, located down the hall from your child’s room.
• Bi-weekly parent support group

When your child is stable and ready to leave the hospital, our case management team will work with you to determine the next phase of your child’s recovery based on their individual needs. For more information on eating disorders, you may reference our guide.