Breakfast after recovery

[sammyspoon]

My 15 year old is in recovery from anorexia (thankfully her recovery has been relatively quick), she is a healthy weight (gained over her pre ED weight) and seems to be eating normally. We're struggling with getting her to eat breakfast. She just says she doesn't want to eat first thing before school and she'd rather have a bigger morning snack. We are struggling with how best to deal with this. Pre illness she didn't like eating breakfast so this is not unusual but she obviously ate breakfast when she had her meal plan through recovery.
Her therapist has hinted that perhaps we should back off and allow her to make her own choices at this stage. It's really hard. Her younger sister also prefers not to eat breakfast and we've been trying to encourage them both on the grounds that there is evidence that they will be able to concentrate at school etc... it's a daily argument and I'm tired of it.

What about something small and light but with protein eg a yoghurt?

I have a pre school DD who just isn't hungry in the AM but I can't bear for her to eat nothing st breakfast so we've settled on yogurt and sometimes she'll agree to half a banana with it too

Gosh, follow her lead and her therapist’s advice. Please don’t argue about this. The risk of pushing her back to disordered and restrictive eating is so high at this stage.

Many people just don’t feel hungry first thing.

Yoghurt is what she's reluctantly having but she'd rather not have it.

My DD was also like this. She found breakfast on her recovery plan the hardest. The quantity for her was far more than she had before she developed ED. But it is still an important part of recovery. Is there anything else that she likes - maybe a protein shake? DD used to make a smoothie with frozen fruit, milk and add a protein powder.

I'm also struggling with this for myself. I've found some belvita soft bake things which are 200 cal and I can pop in my bag and force down at work.

My DD is also in recovery from an ED and like yours is above her pre ED weight. She too struggles with breakfast and has said she’d prefer to eat more later on however I’m standing my ground on this….breakfast just has to be eaten. She stopped eating breakfast well before her diagnosed ED but it did eventually lead to her then not eating lunch and then restricting too much. I would try out different foods with her and see if you can find something she likes. It’s taken ages with my DD but she has accepted she has to eat breakfast and is now eating something she likes. It’s also very hard for them when so many young girls skip breakfast so they hear their friends are and want to do the same. Good luck. You’ve got this far keep on going!