Reply to therapy or other guidance re: stopping anorexia in its tracks

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Reply to "therapy or other guidance re: stopping anorexia in its tracks"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
What do you mean she was always at the "high end"? Because the high end on the chart is basically overweight for almost all kids unless the kid is short and you said she was not.  You now say she is at the low end of normal.  What does that mean?  1%, 10%, 20%?  Is it possible that since her mom was with her all the time that her mom did realize her child was at the high end of the weight range and possibly was told by the doctor her child was overweight?[/quote]

I think you got that backwards.   The high end on the weight percentile chart is NOT overweight, unless the kid is short.

If the kid is 90th%ile for height, it totally makes sense for her to be 90th%ile or even higher for weight.

And OP said her stepdaughter was perfectly normal most of her life, not chubby or overweight.

Finally, just for information, even kids who are overweight can develop anorexia, and it is these kids that are actually at most risk of not being diagnosed early (and having a bad outcome).   If a child who has always been tall and skinny, say 5th%ile on the weight chart, develops anorexia and stops eating -- he will sink rapidly to 1st or 2nd%ile and the case will be taken seriously by the pediatrician. The child is more likely to get help quickly.

But if the child is short and 80th%ile for weight, and says "I'm eating healthy and exercising!" and starts losing weight (growing kids BTW should never lose weight, just maybe gain less as they grow in height) -- he might be praised to losing weight.   Meanwhile the child is losing 20% of her body weight, and the anorexia behaviors are becoming entrenched of a matter of 6-12 months.   She finally reaches 5th%ile for weight and the parents get concerned but the Dr says, "That's still normal weight, no problem".   These are the kids who end up with heart failure in the ER due to malnutrition.

[quote]
I will have to agree that it's normal for eating patterns to change in the middle school years. I recall that I stopped eating lunch in those years and did try several diet plans because I was truly chubby.  Lasted about 6 months each stint and I was very serious.  I never did go back to eating lunch even in high school though. I think it was because lunch was so early in the day sometimes - 10am - and I just wasn't hungry at that time.[/quote]

Yes, it is normal for tweens to change eating patterns, but they still need to ingest calories.   And if they are athletes or compulsively exercising, they need to eat even MORE calories than they used to.[/quote]

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