OP here. Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. From all the inputs it looks like there are really the following options for this area: Dominon, Sheppard Pratt, Veritas in NC or Center for Discovery (Fairfax). Does anyone have a successful experience with any of these, especially for this age group of 12 y? Do these places allow us to talk to parents who have gone through their programs to know more from actual experience than what the centers “advertise”?

I really appreciate the support from this forum. The feast-Ed website is quite informative.

We had a positive experience with shepherds Ellicott City location stabilizing our child after a suicide threat.

I would ask if any facility how they approach your time there and transition you beyond. In our experience SP was good at stabilizing but then after was a transition challenge. I think that may be normal but inquire about how they will approach and what your expectations should be.

My colleague has told me she felt Baltimore shepherd location was overwhelming but her experience is many years old.

Good luck. These times are hard I know.

Franklin Square Hospital, outside of Baltimore, amazingly, has an excellent child and adolescent psych floor. My kid was not there for eating disorders-- but if they take kids with ED it might be good for the kid to not be surrounded by kids with the exact same issue. It was extremely helpful to my family.

Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore has a feeding therapy clinic and I believe they treat infants all the way through adolescents. It’s worth a call. It’s a tiny gem of a hospital in Baltimore doing amazing work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in the Baltimore area and Shepard Pratt is considered the go-to for inpatient stuff, as far as I've heard, and I believe they have pediatric units... Hopkins also absolutely has a peds inpatient psych unit because I used to work at Hopkins and it was the floor below where I worked. (This was 6 years ago so theoretically it was eliminated, but I doubt it)

We were thinking Hopkins as well given its overall excellent medical school. Does Hopkins have a facility to treat eating disorder and co-occurring symptoms for children or is it only a child psych unit? We were told that there was not a separate child ED program, but that the activities were more adult focused, which are not appropriate for 11-12 year olds. Any insight? Thanks.

Unfortunately, I have heard that Hopkins ED program is not nearly as strong as most of the rest of their programs. Everyone I know has some nightmare stories about it (none of them were as young as 12 when they went,though). It sounds very similar to Sheppard Pratt’s program (which is not a good thing!).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry that I don’t have answers, but avoid Dominion. What about Children’s? Or there’s a place in Richmond, but I can’t think of the name.

Children's does initial stabilization but not longer term treatment, which is apparently only done at these facilities, almost all of which have mixed reviews. Are you referring to Veritas in Richmond (also in NC)? Any inputs on the Veritas facilities? Thanks.

As for PANS/PANDAS, I am assuming that they checked for it in the blood work when they ruled out pandas. I am not sure if ibuprofen challenge is appropriate for the child's age.

No firsthand experience but have heard great things about Veritas.

Also, check out www.aroundthedinnertable.org. Great support/advice board for parents/caretakers of those with eating disorders.

I don’t know much about Dominion but would avoid Sheppard Pratt at all costs!

UCSD had a great 5 day family program for adolescents with eating disorders. You will need a local Family Based therapist for follow up but they can almost certainly recommend someone.

GL!