By the time Christina Andrews realized her daughter was struggling with food and body image, she was already in the throes of an eating disorder that would upend the next 17 months of the family’s life.
At just 12 years old, the preteen began restricting her food and lost 25 pounds in a matter of weeks. The added pressures of social media, paired with comparing herself to friends with different body types, created an unhealthy obsession with her weight that quickly spiraled into dangerous habits. While Andrews immediately tried to help her daughter, getting doctors to understand their dire situation — and then finding the right treatment — was a constant battle from the start.
