For a few reasons. First of all, in the past, in many instances in psychiatry, parents were blamed, and mothers in particular. The good news is that over time that is changing, as it needed to change. Parents used to be blamed for autism, schizophrenia, eating disorders, all things that are not the fault of parents. We now know you can be a very good parent, and of course most of them are, and still have a child with a very severe eating disorder like anorexia nervosa. It's a matter of recognizing that the best support for any ill child is their parents. I work with some of the most wonderful families and parents in the world.
The other thing is, as I said before, it's really that the kids are compelled to have symptoms. A combination of a severe phobia, a delusion, an addiction, and a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder all mixed together would be how I would describe anorexia nervosa. Children can't be expected to be able to just choose to eat and gain weight when they're so terrified and so sick. So we put that into the hands of parents and make it clear that it's their responsibility. I often compare it to a child with diabetes who has a severe needle phobia but needs to get their insulin, and then it's up to the parents to figure out how they're going to do that, and they're wonderful at it.