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...

Do you think the parents of children who die of anorexia should be prosecuted too? This is no different.

What do you expect the parents of a child like this to do? Force-feed them through a tube?

The boy clearly has a serious mental health condition that makes him severely phobic about eating most foods. That is not his parents' fault. This isn't just someone 'letting their kids eat rubbish'.

The article linked is disgraceful for the way it is written and the so called 'expert' opinions.

There's more detailed articles on this and the concern about him stopping eating stemmed from primary school, when he stopped eating his packed lunch and point blank refused school dinners.

Perhaps if intervention was available then, they outcome would have been different.

My DD missed out of speech therapy and is now left with a speech issue. Even though she was in a SEN school and i pushed daily.

The interventions aren't there for most people. It's rare that children with disorders aren't let down.

This is the first case of this, in the UK and from other reports, the HCPs wasn't on the ball. Hopefully they will be next time.

For all those that don't think this is real, it's one of the biggest causes of death of children with SN in the undeveloped world. They just fail to thrive, become malnourished and die.

EssentialHummus, have you ever seen somebody forcefeeding a child? I have. It haunts me. It's a violent, cruel thing involving vomiting and screaming and bruises.

It's really not as simple as "just make them eat". If it were, no parent would see their child become ill from restricted earing.

@EssentialHummus as I asked pp, how would you force me to keep the food down? I vomit it back up almost instantly. Would you keep my mouth shut so I have to swallow my own vomit or would you just start shoving more food in so I could vomit again? Remember that I'm being pinned down too, so at high risk of choking without adding in the hysterical crying, panic and fear.

EssentialHummus how many teenagers have you force fed?

EssentialHummus, explain how you'd force feed your child and then lose residency. Because that's what you aim for when you have a child with Additional needs, to lose residency. Do you have any idea what the care system is like for children with additional needs?

In the family were two other children. Do you risk going to prison and losing residency of them as well?

How do you force feed a teenager, exactly? Who do you enlist to do it with you?

My 10 year old was diagnosed with ARFID a few years ago. Pretty much the only non-puréed fords he will eat are bread products, crisps and chips, although I have managed to expand his diet to include some fruits. When he was 3 or 4, he stopped eating altogether for 5 weeks because I tried to get him to eat something he couldn’t bear the texture of. Not many HCP seem to be aware of the complexity of ARFID.

I'm 31. Lived off a pretty similar diet my entire life. I don't even have iron from meat like he does.

Nothing to do with my what my parents did or didn't do. They have five other children who eat completely normally.

I have ARFID/SED - it's not a choice to eat so limited.

I'm rarely ill so I don't come across as someone who doesn't have the ideal diet.

You can't jump to "prosecute the parents" without knowing what's going on

If it's anything like my story he'll have been taken to numerous doctors and dieticians throughout his childhood only to be repeatedly told "oh they'll grow out of it".

how many teenagers have you force fed?

Zero. But if the choice is that or this outcome, which was progressive (that's the critical thing here), you as the parent find some solution to help your child. Injections, force-feeding, selling your house to pay for psychiatric treatment privately, whatever - you do it. Now, the parents pov is lacking from that article, but I'd love to know why they felt the best course of action was sending this kid out every day with money for chips from the chippie.

@EssentialHummus

You could save the NHS many hundreds of thousands on inpatient and outpatient hospitals if you could tell us how you physically force feed a child at home. Adolescent eating disorder clinics are harrowing places, you cannot even imagine the lengths an unwell child will go to in order to avoid a scary food, or even food at all.

If that means bloody force-feeding, I'd do it, assault charge or no assault charge.
I doubt it. Have you ever watched NG feeding under restraint? Even if you could physically manage it (and you probably couldn't), you certainly couldn't do it safely. You'd be at serious risk of causing significant injury to your child or of causing them to choke to death.

So no experience then. Says it all.

There are multiple private eating disorder hospitals, many patients are NHS funded but many are private. They don’t have better outcomes than NHS hospitals.

You wouldn't just face an assault charge by the way. You would lose your children and if you think the care system would do any better you are mistaken.

My youngest daughter who is 6 eats only cereal, plain pasta, chips,crisps and chocolate. She only drinks water and refuses everything else. I have tried everything to get her to eat other foods but she literally examines each spoonful before she eats it. This story is heartbreaking and I really do feel for the parents. It is easier said than done to get a fussy child to.eat different foods - so I can only imagine how they felt with trying to get a teenager to change his diet.

but I'd love to know why they felt the best course of action was sending this kid out every day with money for chips from the chippie.

Because the alternative is starving to death and all the health professionals tell you to just let them eat something no matter what it is.

I’m lucky. Ds loves milk, carrots and peas and will tolerate green beans. The trauma when quorn changed their sausage recipe! He can taste the difference between different brands (Tesco own brand fishcake Ds are safer than Birds Eye & he won’t eat them from the chip shop. Crisps, chips & crackerbreads are safe. He’s stopped eating baked beans. He will eat plain pasta or rice as long as there is no sauce. He will eat certain pizza brands.

Essential when you have a child with additional needs sometimes you can really fight for help but there isn't any or you face a massive waiting list. Ds is 15 and he was referred for an autism assessment 14 months ago. We still don't have a diagnosis even though he starts year 11 this year. If there are long waiting lists there is nothing you can do apart from paying for private support or assessment.

My 16 year old 5”9 son weighs 5 stone
I provide nutritious meals, snacks, drinks supplements and shakes.

Cant force him to take them though.

Please please post your wisdom op

I imagine because they would rather he ate something than starving to death? Selling your house would make the family homeless, injections won't be done on struggling teenagers unless sectioned, again you cannot force feed someone and force them to keep their food down. We won't be sectioned because so many people dismiss it as fussy eating and say to just not feed them the safe foods or force feed them.

The worst thing about it is that there's no help available unless the patient is willing to risk making themselves sick which is unusual. I am extremely unusual in that I did/do risk it and continue to force myself to. The amount of willpower that it has taken me is phenomenal, I have several friends with the disorder and they cannot do it.

@EssentialHummus, you are talking crap because you actually have no idea what you are talking about.

And you have no idea what the parents have or have not tried to help their child.

Those who are judging are very fortunate to never have had a child with autism with serious sensory and food issues! I am fortunate that my two autistic children eat diets high in vitamin b12. Dd is on iron supplements as she cannot stand the taste/ texture/ thought (of eating animals) of meat. Ds is on multivitamins as he cannot physically eat fruit or veg- we blend veg into sauces for him but he lives on a very restrictive diet of meat, fish, potatoes, eggs, dairy and pasta. He is on large doses of multivitamins to compensate. Our dd lives on a diet of fruit, raw veg, chicken, eggs, pasta, rice, cereal, soup, chickpeas, gluten free bread and soya milk- she is coeliac and has been from birth. We supplement her diet with iron. Both have been seen regularly by dieticians who have told us to thank our lucky stars that they eat as well as they do! Yet it is very difficult to provide meals that both children will eat- let alone being able to eat out! We end up making three meals ever night!

I really feel for the family of this young man! This is not uncommon, you cannot force feed autistic children. I am very fortunate that my children will take supplements, they refused when younger!

Selling a house would leave you homeless.....and also many people wouldn’t have a house to sell.

This case has been reported appallingly. We know nothing of why the child ended up with such a narrow diet.

And just try getting mental health support for a child at the present time.

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

Well bully for you.

Not everyone has an eating disorder that can be treated.

My DSS had the most awful diet, no breakfast, lunch from Greggs and 2 potato waffels or smiley faces with 6 chicken nuggets for dinner, same thing every day. He is very tall and no doubt will end up way over 6 foot, His mother refuses to let him have any of the milk as that is for her boyfriend and the toddler. H estayed with us for the 6 week summer holiday and left nearly a stone heavier (he is still underweight) and enjoying a whole new range of homemade food. His mother has him back on the junk diet.Some women should never be allowed to have children

There is a video (freely available) of a man voluntarily undergoing a force feeding procedure. He chose to do it and within minutes is begging them to stop.

Any parent able to put their child through that every day is much braver, or more heartless, than I am. I could well imagine that leading to even worse (psychological) problems than the blindness this young man faces.

It's terrifying.