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This article raises the issue of the serious difficulties some institutions specialised in treatment of paediatric obesity encounter when working with the families. Such families are right at the heart of the problem for these young people : the child’s separation from those close provides the therapeutic basis, but dependency remains strong and separation from the parents, especially the mother, remains difficult. Working from a psychodynamic perspective, the authors, who are psychology researchers, set out from the postulate that an individual’s obesity proves to be indicative of intrapsychic and intersubjective conflicts, but also of a transgenerational family symptom impacting the group’s containing effect. The institution could then ensure a replacement containing function with such families whose psychic envelopes are well-nigh in shreds. Setting out from an institutional clinical example, the article shows the dynamic impact of various therapeutic devices on how the accompaniment of families suffering from separation can be brought to evolve.