Food Insecurity, Disordered Eating, and Child Welfare

This piece, written by an adoptive parent, outlines the ways in which she learned that her own protection of food in the home was resulting in food hoarding behaviour from her adoptive children, who had experienced food insecurity in their early lives. She shares the ways that she changed the access to food in the home to make their lives more welcoming and less triggering.

The National Eating Disorder Information Centre has put together a guide on how parents and caregivers can best support youth in their care who are experiencing eating disorders.

This brief piece from Eating Disorder Hope describes the ways in which children and youth who are adopted are at higher risk for eating disorder behaviours, and ways that adoptive parents can begin the journey of supporting their recovery.

Creating a Family has written a brief write-up to address a question from a foster parent about feeding their foster child, which addresses food insecurity and so-called picky eating.

Creating a Family speaks to Dr. Katja Rowell about addressing various food and eating issues in foster and adopted children, and ways that alternate caregivers can support the children in their care.

Dr. Katja Rowell explores, with a trauma-informed lens, how children in care often have complicated experiences with food, and how caregivers can support an improved relationship with food through intentional practice.

This blog post from Embella outlines the experience of resource parents who begin to suspect the child in their care has an eating disorder, how to recognize warning signs, the potentially grave consequences of letting an eating disorder go unaddressed, and how to seek help.

It is important to model healthy mealtime behavior for a child who may have experienced food insecurity prior to adoption. Adoption Medicine Physician Judith Eckerle, MD, shares mealtime support tips for parents and caregivers.

This piece provides an overview of food hoarding behaviours in foster children, and how caregivers can help children work through their fears of food scarcity.

Katja Rowell, M.D. provides some advice to parents and caregivers who are supporting children and youth with past experiences of food insecurity. *Please note: this resource is not affiliated with OACAS. OACAS strives to avoid the promotion of commercial content; however, as this information is directly related to and useful to the child welfare sector, the decision was made to include it. If you have any questions or concerns about this choice, please direct an email to eburns@oacas.org.

Katja Rowell, M.D. provides some mealtime advice to parents and caregivers who are welcoming new foster or adoptive young people into their home. *Please note: this resource is not affiliated with OACAS. OACAS strives to avoid the promotion of commercial content; however, as this information is directly related to and useful to the child welfare sector, the decision was made to include it. If you have any questions or concerns about this choice, please direct an email to eburns@oacas.org.

Household food insecurity is reported by adults living in households which cannot afford the quality or quantity of food needed for good health. 7% of Canadian adults live in households with food insecurity.