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Eating Disorders for Two

Helping the Anorexic or Bulimic Mom-to-be

By Laura Paul

A father of four children, two adopted and two biological, Dr. Jahraus says he understands the emotional side to pregnancy as well as the medical component. He thinks it is important for husbands to support their wives and tell them they are attractive during the pregnancy. "I think the husband's impact on the wife's feelings about herself and her body are critical to good health and that said, I can tell you, I have gone through it before," he says. "You might make a tangential comment at some point about how she's changing, and it's kind of fun, and lighthearted to a man, and a woman will take it extremely seriously and almost as a challenge sometimes to say, 'No way. I'm not going there even if it involves dangerous things like skipping meals and getting into vomiting to lose weight.'"

Fayina Cohen, a psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist who lives in Great Neck, N.Y., treats people with eating disorders including exercise bulimia. She says during pregnancy most women with exercise bulimia continue to exercise because their physician tells them it is all right to continue moderate exercise. "They may step down a bit," she says. "It's not something that would be as commonly recognized as a disorder because it's perceived that this is a person who is healthy, just a healthy person who had an exercise regimen before and they want to do it during pregnancy. It's what's going on internally that would determine if it is a problem – if they run to the gym just because they are afraid to gain extra weight versus because they are more concerned with the general health benefits of exercising. It's harder to recognize exercise bulimia during pregnancy or not because so much of it is internal."

Want to see more?

• Recovery and Risk: Coping with an Eating Disorder During Pregnancy
• Fit and Pregnant: How to Have a Healthy Pregnancy
• Fitness Fanatic? Why You May Need to Tone Down Your Workout
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