To be surprised this kid’s parents haven’t been prosecuted?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Teenage boy goes blind after being allowed to eat crap for the best part of a decade (BBC News link)

I mean surely this is tantamount to child abuse, or at the very least neglect? How does a parent allow this to happen? I mean you don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that chips, pringles and white bread aren’t exactly a balanced diet...

I agree, it has to be a long-standing issue. If he was refusing all other food I wonder why there wasn’t psychiatric involvement. This outcome is a disgrace for his family and his medical carers.

You want to go straight for the throat and prosecute? Since you have all the answers, what would you do if you are the parent of these kids? I'm assuming you have extensive experience and a tried and tested method?

There probably are parents reading who would love to know OP.

There are other ways to get vitamins though... smoothies, fruit juices, even a decent multi-vit tablet... there must have been something they could have done to prevent it getting this far. That poor boy!

For many children it isn’t that simple.

Amongst his conditions Ds has something called arfid- avoidant resistant food intake disorder. It manifests itself different for different young people but the common area is a very restricted diet. I am “lucky” that Ds has generally always had fruit and salad as he safe items but he has such a restricted diet he is now tube fed.

I saw this story and straight away knew it would bring out the ignorant “they won’t starve themselves” brigade. Some children will.

So often parents of children who have disordered eating are shouting from the rooftops for help and getting fobbed off

Whilst I agree with you on the surface - the boy has an eating disorder/mental illness. So it’s similar to blaming parents for their teenager having anorexia, there’s limited things parents can do to stop their child from being anorexic as their child needs expert help from medical professionals. However the fact that in this case this has been his diet since primary school is ridiculous.

Don’t be ridiculous. Familiarise yourself with the facts of this poor boys’ life and condition as opposed to reading the headlines.

Right so you’d prosecute the parents of young people who become extremely sick or even die through eating disorders such as anorexia?

You’re talking utter shit. Without knowing anything about the background and what the parents might have tried to do/ not done, you’re just pronouncing ‘prosecute’?

Totally depressing

There is treatment for ARFID, but I would guess it is very hard to access on the NHS. Poor boy.

I am guessing you have never tried to access help in a similar situation. There is no help, we got a very 'nice' reply from the dietitian service after a referral from the consultant paediatrician, basically saying 'tough, you are on your own'

No one helps, saying put a couple of new foods on the plate everyday is far far too simplistic.

I guess I am lucky in a way as the diet consists of mainly cereal which is fortified, but as he is growing as he should he isn't hitting any trigger points.

But yeah, let's just prosecute all us parents.

If you're going to prosecute his parents, you need to extend that to every child with anorexia or bulimia. He has an eating disorder.

I would assume there was more to the case than just the parents letting him eat what he wants.My son has severe autism and learning disabillities and a restricted diet he doesn't to badly tbh and " grazes " throughout the day but there are are some children who will only eat one or two items and if they don't get that they would just not eat .

This could so easily be my nephew. His diet is pretty much the same. His parents and my parents make excuses and carry on feeding him nothing but shite. They've taken him to the doctors and have seen a dietician but ultimately it requires them to make changes and put in some effort and they're not prepared to do that. They want a magic pill that'll fix him without having to make any changes. It's so sad.

I thought it was interesting that from outward appearances you would think the child was well fed. So any outside agencies would t have looked twice unless he was ill a lot maybe.

I too would be looking to the parents rightly or wrongly.

I don’t believe that the parents are to blame for their son having having an eating disorder, but I also don’t believe that they had no choice but to let him go blind through malnutrition. I am extremely familiar with mental and eating disorders, having gone through both myself... it wasn’t easy and my Mum had to fight like crazy for treatment, but she fought and I was treated and thankfully recovered before I was able to inflict any permanent damage on my body.

I have a child with ASD who only eats a few types of food. We have tried everything we can think of to get him to try fruit and vegetable. He literally can't stand the smell or texture and becomes incredibly distressed if we try to give him any.
I wouldn't be surprised if this boy is also on the autistic spectrum. Please don't be so judgemental to his parents without knowing the facts. This story has terrified me because I am a total loss as to how to get DS to eat any fruit or veg

I thought this OP. So many parents have to get nutrients into fussy children and manage it to a greater or lesser extent. But they manage it. It’s hard to tell what went wrong here.

It says his parents took him to doctors. So it does sound like they did try to do something.

YABVU

He's got an eating disorder. Fucking hell, yes, let's prosecute the parents of children with disabilities and mental health problems because it must be their fault. Bloody hell OP.

So you want to have them prosecuted but don’t think they’re to blame?

I’ve already said I don’t think it’s their fault he has an eating disorder.

You understand yet you still judge

My DP eats this same diet and he's 30. I genuinely think he's only appearing healthy (he actually is very healthy somehow???) because of ketchup.

Reading up on ARFID, scary!

At that time he was diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiency and put on supplements, but he did not stick with the treatment or improve his poor diet.

This is where you have to assume a certain level of parental responsibility. Why bother seeking help at all if you aren’t then going to follow through with treatment?

It says he was given B12 supplements and a diet at 14 but didn’t stick to it, the comment about dislike of textures yet chips, crisps and bread are all different textures. I think the parents need to take responsibility here, they went to the doctors 3 years ago but didn’t carry out the advice, doesn’t seem like they tried very hard.

Because sometimes it’s impossible to actually get the medication into the child. I am lucky that Ds will always swallow tablets but refuses liquids (they now go via tube)

A child with a restricted diet won’t only be restricted with food