Blindness due to eating disorders. AIBU

[RedButBlueButBlack]

As most of us would have heard about the poor boy who lost his eyesight & some of his hearing due to an eating disorder. I can’t help but wonder how this was allowed to happen. He had a b12 deficiencies which I have had it isn’t pleasant at all, my tongue was swollen, tingling in my hands & feet not to mention extreme fatigue. How could this have been missed.

He also had a low level of vitamin d. AIBU to think there is a bigger issue here. Would a vitamin D deficiency suggest lack of sunlight?

I am not suggesting anybody is at fault here I think mental health is being seriously Overlooked & cases like this are going to be heard of more & more.

There’s insufficient sunlight in the UK for most people to make enough vitamin D most of the year, even if they work outdoors. Vit D deficiency is incredibly common.

To save those of us with children with arfid going through this all over again, please read the thread that @zen1 linked to.

It explodes the myths that have already been posted on this thread and several more.

Obviously, if all you want to do is make an ignorant attack on a family struggling with a very poorly supported and understood disorder, crack on.

Paying private for Help cost money Kokeshi,many families can't afford private medical care

I feel very very sorry for his parents. My baby stopped eating because of ear infections and is low centile. Very low. Eating hurt so in her baby brain. If i eat it hurts then I dont eat and it wont hurt. She was hospitalised, treated with antibiotics on and off for several months and we now seem to be seeing the light again re food. So I cannot imagine the anxiety and worry his poor parents have gone through, with all his extreme issues and how guilty they must feel. My heart goes out to them and their little boy.

LookingForward2020
"I often wonder why you do not see these types of eating disorders (only eating one type of food, avoiding certain textures etc) in poor countries."

You do, the children die.

People with MH/LDs/Autism are kept in chains. They have the 'demons' beaten out of them and the treatment often kills them.

They just become another child whose died of malnutrition.

Google" Autism in Nigeria/India" etc.

Healthy girls are dying because they have to live in huts during their period. Do you think that disabled children have much value?

My mother had no vitamin d last year at all. This was not due to sunlight but because she had low iron. Low iron means body cannot retain vitamin d as the body cannot absorb it properly. The eating disorder this person has is very complicated my child has the same condition. However we make sure he has blood tests regularly to insure his levels are OK and give the meds as best we can which can also be tricky if they have any kind of flavour to them. (have to hide them in his milk but won't drink if tastes different)

Tricia - I give my twins vitamin D + k2 in drop form. I get the Epigenar drops from Amazon and put one drop on a flavoured rice cake and let it sink it. Apparently if you put them in liquid it doesn’t mix and just sinks so they don’t get it. The drops I use have 1000iu per drop so verh concentrated. Maybe worth a try?

Serious question, but was paying privately for help not an option for either of these families if the NHS was being useless

What an ignorant question! Do you honestly think that most families can afford to pay hundreds of pounds for a consultation and blood tests, then more on top for ongoing prescriptions etc?! I’ve had to go private for a couple of tests the NHS didn’t offer and they cost £200 each, just to find out what was going on. There’s then the cost of buying medication to treat the illness once it’s diagnosed because the NHS wouldn’t accept my test results from ‘some random clinic’ in Harley Street

So no, I don’t expect going privately was possible, especially as the parents would not have know quite how serious these deficiencies were at the time. I had no idea what vitamin B12 did until I researched it and pushed for tests for myself.

Paying privately? Is that a joke?

I’m trying to sort out OT assessments for my twins as I need them urgently - it’s going to cost me £600. That’s for two hours of assessments each. Do you know what longterm private treatment costs? Do you know what a single appointment with a consultant costs?

Serious question, but was paying privately for help not an option for either of these families if the NHS was being useless

I recently looked in to a private consultation with a Dietician for my DS (who I believe has ARFID) and it is £350 an hour and the closest one is a 5 hour round trip.