The SPOT
Partnering with youth and young adults (ages 13-24) to create a safe, welcoming space for them to address their goals and achieve positive physical and mental health outcomes.
Admission Criteria for Eating Disorders
This document outlines the hospital admission criteria for adolescents with eating disorders at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, emphasizing medical stabilization through renourishment and monitoring for complications. Admission is justified by factors such as severe underweight, dehydration, abnormal labs, cardiac issues, failure of outpatient treatment, food refusal, dangerous behaviors like binging and purging or coexisting serious psychiatric or medical conditions.
Antidepressants and Understanding Black Box Warnings
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, Adolescent Medicine Specialist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, explains that hearing a child’s depression diagnosis is difficult for parents, involving emotions like worry and guilt, and she describes SSRIs as the primary treatment, including the FDA-required black box warnings about their serious safety risks.
ARFID General Info
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is a feeding disorder where individuals avoid certain foods due to sensory sensitivities, past negative experiences, or lack of appetite, leading to nutritional deficiencies and potentially serious health issues. Inpatient treatment involves a multidisciplinary medical team providing medical care, nutritional rehabilitation, and cognitive behavioral therapy with graded food exposures to support recovery.
ARFID Treatment, Graded Exposure
The most effective treatment for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which includes graded exposure to feared foods through a fear hierarchy, helping children gradually overcome their food anxieties. Treatment involves planned, prolonged, and repeated exposures with incentives to motivate the child, promoting habituation and confidence in trying new foods.
Exercise in Eating Disorder Recovery
The document emphasizes the importance of a gradual and supervised return to exercise during eating disorder recovery, starting with low-impact activities and progressing carefully. It highlights the benefits of healthy exercise while warning against unhealthy exercise behaviors that can worsen physical and mental health, advising consultation with medical professionals as needed.
Family-Based Treatment for Eating Disorders
Family-Based Treatment (FBT) for eating disorders is a structured approach involving three phases: weight restoration led by caregivers, gradually returning control of eating to the adolescent, and establishing a healthy adolescent identity. It is most effective for children under 18 who have been ill less than three years, requires strong family commitment, and involves close supervision of eating with support from trained therapists over several months.
GirlsHealth.gov
Designed specifically for girls, this website is a fun way to learn about everything from nutrition and your body to your emotions and relationships. You can also post comments or concerns and read what other girls your age are thinking about!
Good Manners in the Digital Age: Phone Etiquette
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, from St. Louis Children’s Hospital explains the importance of teaching children respectful phone and device etiquette, covering proper communication methods from texting to calls.
Guiding Principles for Family-Based Therapy
The document emphasizes the importance of vigilant, structured support in family-based treatment for eating disorders, including closely monitoring meals, enforcing firm boundaries without negotiation, and using natural consequences to encourage healthy behaviors. It encourages parents to be a protective presence and consistent guide, creating a safe environment that helps their child navigate recovery successfully.
How Can I Tell if My Child Has an Eating Disorder?
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, a WashU Medicine pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, discusses how to tell if your child has an eating disorder and what puts kids at risk for eating disorders.
How to Comfort Your Child’s Broken Heart
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
In this video, Sarah Garwood, MD, offers advice on handling a child’s first heartbreak, including tips for supportive conversations about dating, breakups, coping mechanisms, appropriate social media use, and recognizing signs that a teen may need additional help.
How to Deal With Teenage Mood Swings
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, Adolescent Medicine Specialist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, explains the causes of teen moodiness, how to manage mood swings, and when to seek help, emphasizing the importance of early intervention by contacting a mental health professional or pediatrician if concerns arise.
How to prevent loneliness in teens
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
One of the strongest predictors of happiness is social connection. However, over the past two decades, the amount of time young people spend socializing has decreased 70% and the rate of loneliness has increased every year between 1976 and 2019. How can you help your teen avoid experiencing this social isolation?
I Wanna Know
A very complete website with lots of information about sex, sexual health, and especially sexually transmitted infections. This is a great place for you to educate yourself on STI prevention and treatment!
Levels of Care for Eating Disorders
The document outlines the levels of care for eating disorder treatment, ranging from the most intensive inpatient hospitalization to outpatient therapy, each with specific focuses and durations tailored to the patient’s needs. It emphasizes that treatment is personalized and may progress from more to less intensive care, with decisions guided by medical teams based on various factors including symptom severity and available resources.
Managing GI Symptoms and Eating Disorders
The document provides guidance for managing common gastrointestinal symptoms in children recovering from eating disorders, emphasizing consistent meal timing, symptom-specific strategies and maintaining empathy while encouraging regular eating. It also highlights that digestive issues often improve with proper nutrition but advises consulting a medical team if symptoms are severe or persistent.
Mental Health Literacy
This website has a lot of information on the teen brain and its mental health. Check out some of the multimedia presentations for a different way to learn about mental health and mental illness.
Refeeding Syndrome
Refeeding syndrome is a potentially serious condition that can occur when nutrition is reintroduced to malnourished individuals, causing rapid shifts in electrolytes like phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium due to insulin-driven metabolic changes. To reduce risk, St Louis Children’s Hospital uses gradual meal plans, supplements key nutrients, monitors labs daily, and adjusts treatment as needed to prevent complications affecting the heart, lungs or brain.
Regular Eating for Adolescents
This document outlines how to support adolescents in returning to regular eating by providing consistent, balanced meals and snacks every 3-4 hours, served in a supportive environment without focusing on calories or body size. It emphasizes compassion, firm encouragement, normal portion sizes, and including enjoyable foods to help improve their overall well-being and aid recovery from disordered eating.
Scarleteen
This website is a great resource for information, advice and education about sex and sexuality. There is information about everything from the anatomy of your body, to how to talk to a partner about sex, and other really interesting topics.
Sex, etc.
This is a website written by teens for teens about sex and sexual health. There are interactive ways to learn, like quizzes, chat rooms, and forums.
Should my child get the HPV vaccine?
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, a mother of three daughters, emphasizes her decision to vaccinate all of them against HPV and encourages others to watch a video for expert advice from Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Signs of an Eating Disorder
This document outlines typical teenage eating behaviors, such as seeking independence in food choices and experimenting with diets, while highlighting warning signs of eating disorders like rapid weight changes, secretive eating, and medical issues. It emphasizes the importance of early detection, open communication, and consulting a medical provider for concerns about an adolescent’s eating habits.
SLCH Inpatient Eating Disorder Guide for Patients and Families
This guide from St. Louis Children’s Hospital outlines the multidisciplinary inpatient treatment approach for eating disorders, emphasizing medical stabilization, nutritional rehabilitation, and Family Based Treatment (FBT) involving parents in refeeding. It also provides practical caregiver tips, meal supervision guidelines, activity restrictions, and resources to support recovery during hospitalization and beyond.
Starvation – Impact on the Brain
Starvation negatively affects mental health by causing emotional distress, cognitive difficulties, social withdrawal, and altered behaviors around food. Timely treatment, especially in adolescents, is crucial for brain development and recovery, as physical renourishment often improves insight and reduces rigid thinking.
Starvation – Impacts on the Body
Starvation causes a range of gastrointestinal symptoms and serious physical effects, including muscle loss, weakened heart function, bone density loss, hormonal imbalances, and abnormal blood tests. Timely treatment with gradual nutritional rehabilitation is essential to prevent worsening complications and support recovery.
TeenCentral
This is an especially interactive site. This is less of an information gathering website and more of a discussion and networking website. There are lots of stories from other teens and interesting opportunities to add your own story to the discussion.
TeenHealthFX
This is a really good website with lots of information on teen health issues. There is a section of recently added questions from other teens, forums for discussion about general topics, and lots of links to help you find more information on general issues.
Why Do Teens Cut Themselves? (Part 2)
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
In this follow-up video, Sarah Garwood, MD, addresses kids and teens on seeking help for self-harm, offers prevention tactics, and provides additional advice for parents on recognizing and dealing with self-injury behaviors.
Young Men’s Health
A website designed especially for young men about their health and issues specifically pertaining to men. There is lots of information about nutrition, fitness, and sexual, physical and emotional health.
Your First Period: What You Need to Know
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD, talks on the importance of mothers helping their daughters feel comfortable with the changes of puberty by discussing what is normal and what to expect during the menstrual cycle, to alleviate nervousness on both sides.
Your Teen’s First Relationship—How To Support Them as a Parent
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Sarah Garwood, MD discusses the emotional journey and balancing act for parents as their teens experience their first romantic relationship, providing guidance on how to be supportive without being overbearing, and recognizing what is normal versus what may need closer attention.