Welcome to ePATH

Joanna’s daughter Nicole had always been very busy with sports, school government, and an active social life. Because of this, it wasn’t unsual for her to run out the door in the morning without having breakfast or get home too late to eat her dinner with the family. However, recently, Joanna has begun noticing Nicole making more and more excuses to avoid eating with others. Nicole will say that she “ate at school” or that she’s “not hungry”, which is a change from her usual healthy appetite. Should Joanna worry?

Ricky had always been slightly overweight as a child. Therefore, when he made the school track team and started trying to “eat healthy” in order to get in shape and lose a few pounds, his parents were supportive. However, what started with Ricky just trying to eat more vegetables and cut back on desserts has now grown so that his list of “forbidden foods” is almost longer than the list of things he will eat. Most recently Ricky, always an enthusiastic hamburger-eater, informed his mother of his decision to become a vegetarian. Are these changes cause for concern?

Lauren and Dave had heard about eating disorders but figured that, though their daughter Allison spent a lot of time in front of the mirror complaining about how “fat” she was, the fact that she ate regularly meant they had nothing to worry about. Recently though, large amounts of food have gone missing from the kitchen, and, though Allison denies eating any of it, Dave often hears her in the kitchen after he and Lauren have gone to bed. Is this an eating disorder?

Do any of these stories remind you of your teenager? Eating disorders are sneaky, complex illnesses that often first show up as just a few symptoms. Even trickier is the fact that these early symptoms can look a lot like “typical teen behavior” (e.g. negative body image, dieting, moodiness) and so, can fly under the radar for a while. The truth is, these symptoms can be quite serious. What’s more, as these symptoms grow in intensity and number, the resulting disorder can be very difficult to address and quite harmful to your child.

ePATH is a brand new, entirely web-based program being evaluated by researchers at the University of Chicago. The program is designed to help families of teenagers with eating disorder symptoms address these early warning signs, and to prevent a more serious eating disorder from developing.

Click here to read more about our program's philosophy.