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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Early signs of anorexia...?

105 replies

TabbyTigger · 22/11/2017 13:47

I don’t know if there’s a more specific area to post this (I couldn’t find one?). I think this is going to be long so please stick with me, I just want to give the full picture and not drip feed Smile

I’m concerned DD might be showing early signs of anorexia. She’s 12 and in year 8. Her dad recently re-married and moved in with his wife and her daughter, who is DD’s age. They’ve never got along - they’re in the same year at school. This girl sends DD all sorts of mean messages when she’s hear but speaks in a babyish voice and is sweet to her face (although can break out into screaming/kicking, even at nearly 13). DD as a result has become increasingly reluctant to go to her dad’s - fairly sure she was faking having a migraine last weekend to avoid it, and has decided to stopp going midweek because she says it disrupts her routine. I accepted this at face value until she started confiding more about not getting on with ex-H’s DSD. I’m also pregnant (due in Feb) and DS moved out in September (to study, not because of anything dramatic), so it’s been a relatively big year for her.

She’s always been relatively slim and very sporty - trampolining and dance both in and out of school, a martial art out of school and part of the school netball team. This year she’s suddenly taken on much more dance after getting into a few companies, and has also started going to boxing twice a week before school, and going to badminton and volleyball at lunch. She has packed lunches and her lunchbox always comes back completely empty which it never used to. She’d often leave orange peel/wrappers/tinfoil/clingfilm in there. On weekends she doesn’t eat lunch - she has breakfast (sometimes as small as an orange, the past week I’ve convinced her to eat a (plain) croissant on most) but very rarely will eat her lunch. She used to always just eat what I made for younger DC and we’d sit around the table and eat it together. Over half term she asked to make her own, but I would repeatedly call her and remind her of lunch and she’d keep saying she wasn’t hungry and would wait for tea, or would get some crackers and take them up to her room. I found about 10-12 crackers in various places her room this morning, not even hidden. The only days when she ate a proper lunch were those when her friends were round and I made them the same as the whole family. She has packed lunches on weekends because she is at dance rehearsals all day, which if I’d known she was going to take up so much during the week I absolutely would not have allowed. (I let her do it on the basis that she quit her out of school trampolining and did just one session of her martial art a week). And again, the lunch box comes home totally empty - like the contents has just been disposed of.

Now onto tea: she does eat tea, but never all of it. She used to eat all her tea and have pudding. Now she often rejects pudding and just eats sort of half. For example, last night (after a day in which she’d done boxing and trampolining at school and had a dance class later in the evening) we had nachos with tomato sauce/lots of cheese, peas, and garlic bread. She ate all of the peas, I think two pieces of garlic bread (I didn’t manage to count but it was no more than two), and very much picked at her nachos - probably ate about half. When she got back from dance I offered her soup as a sort of supper (because she’d not eaten a lot of tea) and she said no. She also used to always have a snack first thing when she got home - not any more.

So. Am I being paranoid and overreacting? And if I’m not, what do I do? Who do I speak to? How do I manage it better? I’ve told her she has to quit 3 activities after Christmas (she said she had to do the whole term because she’d signed up - I’m skeptical so might ask the school), but she definitely does love dancing so much so I’m reluctant to make her cut down on that.

Sorry that this is so long, and please be gentle. This is really new and scary territory.

OP posts:
NinonDeLenclos · 25/11/2017 09:53

The question over changing schools is way way way down the line, if all else fails. Hopefully it won't come to that.

LeCreusetOrDead · 25/11/2017 15:53

Hi,

I think it’s brilliant you’re so attentive as often these are subtle signs that people with lots going on wouldn’t pick up on (and it sounds like there’s a lot going on for you!). You seem to be handling it all very sensitively as well which is great.

I am a doctor currently working in GP and would definitely want to see her - if you can request a double appointment even better as 20 minutes would be better than 10 to allow the GP to begin to get to the bottom of this sensitive issue and allow your DD to build some trust in them.

Good luck and keep us updated x

TabbyTigger · 25/11/2017 16:25

I totally agree that it’s too much sport - however at the beginning of the term she was simply saying to me “oh I went to badminton at lunch today” or “by the way I’m staying after school for trampolining” - at the time she was eating normally and she’s always been very sporty, so I didn’t think too much of it, just thought she was being overenthusiastic and trying lots of new things (but would drop most of them a few weeks into the term - at the beginning of year 7 she was doing all sorts of activities that lasted no longer than six weeks). This morning I read lots on the B-eat website, and I’m planning to call

OP posts:
TabbyTigger · 25/11/2017 16:40

Oops - posted too soon! I’m planning to call their helpline either in half an hour if I can or tomorrow afternoon (it’s only open 3pm-10pm). Our GP already booked ya a follow up appointment (I don’t know if it’s was double) so we’re going together on Monday 4th December. Which gives me time to chat with DD and get her on board, look at the step sister issue and tackle what I can without help.

A dad update: about two hours after my first text I sent -
“If you don’t respond I’ll just assume you’re not interested in your daughter’s wellbeing.”
And I’ve still not got a response Sad maybe he’ll buck up when we report the step sister to school (hopefully not defend the step sister like last time)

Regarding moving schools - I’m definitely not looking into that until I’ve got no other options. DD likes her school, her friends, her teachers, her walk there. I don’t want to ruin that - and we’re in south London so I’m not sure how easy it’ll be to move. If it’s still an issue at the end of year 8 then we’ll consider it, but for now, no. The step sister doesn’t harass her a lot in school - mostly over message and at her dad’s. She has a good girl image to keep up, so mainly she just does little spiteful things (trying to trip DD up/ making sarcastic comments). Anyone who saw them at school together would probably assume they were just two children who didn’t mesh well.

Don’t know if I mentioned before but I’m meeting DD’s tutor next Wednesday lunchtime (or Tuesday - she’ll tell me which is best. Luckily I work for myself mostly from home!), which is when we’ll be discussing the step sister issue. I told DD this plan this morning before she had to go to dance (I thought it meant she’d have time to maybe chat with her friends/ blow off the stressed reaction I knew she’d have) and said she could choose whether she came or not. She cried and protested and went off to street dance unhappy with me. I’ve texted her saying -
I understand why you’re unhappy, but it absolutely has to be done. This can’t go on. I love you very much and that’s why we’re doing this - I want you to be happy and safe.”
Hopefully when she gets home she’ll be better, and we can chat it through and I can explain it all to her again, when she’s more ready to listen.

OP posts:
PottedPlantCrazy · 30/05/2024 09:08

I know this is an old post, but I’m just wondering - how is your daughter? Dod things improve? I hope she is happy and healthy x

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