Unusual Anorexia

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I would like as much information as I can get on the topic of Anorexia and would also like to know if anyone knows about a situation that sounds even remotely similar to the situation that my family is dealing with.

My nephew, yes NEPHEW will be 10 years old in a couple of weeks and weighs 48 pounds! The 5% weight for boys his age and height is about 55 pounds. That means that 95% of boys his age weigh over 55 pounds and he weighs 48 pounds. His pediatrician has diagnosed him with anorexia and has told my sister and BIL to do anything they can to get him to eat. This has been ongoing for several years now. The child appears VERY sickly.

My sister recollects and has pictures to backup that he has continually lost weight since he was about 5 years old. At that time, he started staying with his paternal grandparents in the afternoon. His grandmother is very thin, and of course society celebrates thinness, and of course his grandparents eats like old people, i.e. they watch their salt intake, cholesterol, fat consumption, etc. His grandparents give positive reinforcement to his eating behavior. He no longer stays with them after school, but is now bombarded at school with messages that fatty food is bad. It doesn't help that some of the people in my family (me and my other sister) are actually FAT. I understand why the schools bombard kids with healthy eating messages, but this kid is starving to death.

He reads all of the labels on everything and refuses to eat anything that is not extremely low in calories and fat free. He refers to anyone that is not underweight as fat. He then goes through spells where he doesn't want to eat so its a big struggle to get him to even maintain his present weight much less gain. Recently, my sister insisted that my nephew no longer drink diet sodas, and if milk or juice wasn't available to drink the full calorie variety soda. He knocked it over so that he wouldn't have to drink it.

Anyway, my nephew has been on medication in the past that made him violent, and was removed from it. Before now, Doctors have shrugged and just said some kids won't eat. They are still not giving her good answers. They just keep telling her that he is not a teenage female. Gee whiz she knows that. My sister is frightened of putting her child on a cocktail of mood altering drugs that has been suggested.

Has anyone ever heard of pre-teen boys having anorexia? Are his symptoms typical? Where can he get help? What can be done? What is the typical treatment for anorexia?

 

[livndisney]

I don't have experience with male anorexia but I just googled "Male anorexia" and a bunch of info came up including some centers that specialize in Male anorexia.

Here is one of the sites I clicked on:
http://www.something-fishy.org/cultural/issuesformen.php

to your nephew

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Thank you. I had looked in the past, but had not found anything.

Did you find anything on childhood anorexia?

 

[livndisney]

I did a search for "male pre teen anorexia"

http://www.connectwithkids.com/tipsheet/2008/373_feb20/thisweek/080220_male.shtml

This is dated 2/08

Also here is a book:

http://www.amazon.com/Skinny-Boy-Battle-Triumph-Anorexia/dp/0976154749

Like I said I have no experience with this, I am just really good at internet searches

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Thank you for your links.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue?

 

[barkley]

since his mind set is that his dietary choices are healthy it would seem that his meeting with a nutritionist to discuss what is healthy might be beneficial. he needs to understand the implications of not providing the proper nutrition to his body are. he may have already experienced some issues but is'nt aware of how it's tied into his eating habits-has he had any dental issues? poor nutrition can be a major factor in dental health. as he ages he may also have a delay in puberty if his body does'nt have the necessary stores of fat an muscle-that may be a wake up call for a boy his age.

my ds is 11-and just weighs a tad over 50 pounds. his issue is not one of choosing to eat only low calorie/non fatty foods. he is on a medication that hampers his appetite, and he has a very high metabolism so it's realy hard for him to put on weight. our doctor and nutritionists have advised us to ensure that he is eating high calorie foods in the necessary food groups so that's all that he's provided with at home and via his lunch at school. we also have a product that is odorless, colorless, and tasteless that we add to many items he eats and provides several hundreds of extra calories and fat grams (he does'nt even know it's in there). but with him it's not a mental choice not to eat certain items-with your nephew it appears to be. in that case mental health treatment may be the best avenue of treatment.

good luck in your research.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I'm a "former" anorexic (female and I was a teenager) and I can tell you that his behaviours are very typical anorexic. I agree that what he needs is mental health treatment, but not using meds, in stead he should see a psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist. Specifically he should see someone who works only with kids and if they can find one who has experience with eating disorders, it'd be even better.

Can they get him to drink something like ensure or boost? It's a "diet" thing which may help get him to agree to drink it, but what it really is is empty calories. When I was first trying to fight my ED, I used things like that because I was eating so little that I wasn't even hungry, but I'd been drinking so much water when not eating that drinking things was a little easier on my body.

Also, if he's been doing this for years (which is what it sounds like has happened), forcing him to eat a lot of really fatty foods all of a sudden will make him sick. Things need to be gradually built up, but he needs to get to the point where he understands that it needs to happen first, which is why the psychologist or psychiatrist would be my first line of attack.

Finally, I hate to say this, but it's going to be a long term fight. It's been years since I was actively anorexic and I still get urges to skip meals and I still feel slightly satisfied with myself if I'm feeling hungry when I go to bed or when I manage to get through a day eating only one meal or under 800 calories. As well, when I first started eating again, I ballooned up because when you don't eat, or eat very little, your metabolism does slow down eventually. I've never gotten back the metabolism I had before and when you jump 40+ pounds in under a year eating like everyone else you know does, it's really hard to not start back up with missing meals and being obsessive about food.

I hope things can get figured out for him. Good luck.