Restrictive eating disorders in children and young people: the role of the paediatrician and paediatric ward

INTRODUCTION It will not have escaped any paediatrician that the COVID19 pandemic has seen a marked rise in presentations of children and young people with restrictive eating disorders. The surge has spilled onto paediatric wards, with young people in distress often admitted for weeks at a time awaiting more specialist care. In some centres in the UK, however, admission rates have been lower through closer collaboration between paediatricians and eating disorder teams who offer a different, more preemptive approach to the medical management of affected young people and their families. We discuss how paediatricians and the proactive paediatric admission, sanctioned and supported by the eating disorder team, can influence the journey to recovery of a young person with a restrictive eating disorder.