After completing medical school, psychiatry residencies are not too competitive. If you are a graduate from a US medical school, and did okay, you can probably match in a program. The top programs in the country are the only ones that get fairly competitive.

From what I recall, there a few programs that offer a fellowship in eating disorders, but I don't believe it is a board recognized subspecialty. Any psychiatrist can technically treat eating disorders, however, I'd recommend you either do your residency at a program with a strong eating disorders program, or you spend an extra year working with someone who is experienced with treating eating disorders.

While many eating disorder patients are adolescents and young adults, I don't think you'd benefit from doing a child and adolescent fellowship just to treat eating disorder patients. I would guess most child and adolescent programs don't spend must focus on eating disorders, and most focus would be on other issues not relevant to eating disorder treatment.

I'm not an eating disorder specialist, so it'd be best to discuss this with eating disorder specialists at your medical school for further suggestions on the best route.

It is a long way between where you are now and being a psychiatrist specializing in eating disorders. You may find along the way that there are other areas that also interest you.

I can tell you that eating disorders is a very challenging and difficult area of specialty. And yet there are many who treat Eating disorders who are well suited to it and thrive on the work.

I was once an eating disorders specialist. It happened somewhat accidentally, in that while working in a hospital setting early in my career I was assigned to the E.D. unit to meet the service needs of the institution. I enjoyed the inpatient work, but clearly the hospitalized anorexic patient is among the most psychiatrically ill of patients you will ever see.

In response to your question, I think it would be essential to work in an eating disorders treatment setting with experienced practicioners if you are interested in this area. Probably it would be best to do some of this after residency as it might well be difficult to get adequate experience during residency alone as there are so many other areas of psychiatry with which you also need to become familiar during training.

I found that in private practice treating E.D. patients, especially those at the more severely ill end of the spectrum, was extremely difficult. However, it is possible to help a motivated person a great deal in this field, and that can be very satisfying.