Dietician and Eating disorder

[JaWellNoFine]

Hi

I am hoping someone can let me know what I'm in for..

DS (10) has eventually being referred to a dietitian. We actually tried to get a referral to CAMHS (is that right?) but I was told the waiting list was too long and I was better off going private which was not an option. He is overweight and it's getting worse. The problem is not his diet (as in the meals he is fed) but rather that he steals food and eats it. A lot of food. We now cannot allow him in the kitchen (or downstairs) alone. Yesterday we found a huge tub a snowflake cake decorations in his room. We find stuff everywhere, all the time. Chicken bones, a packet of sugar etc. Biscuits have been banned from the house for months. Any treats are put in cupboards in our bedroom. If it gets left out it gets eaten. And the lies... Omg!

We think the issue with the compulsive eating needs to be addressed, i.e. his head not his stomach. He does a lot of sport but is not built for sport and is not very good. Which causes anxiety. He is 'on the spectrum' but undiagnosed as is high functioning and the ed psych did not see a need to label him.
He knows he has an issue and cannot help himself. This causes him so much heartache. He doesn't want to binge.. there are lots of tears.

The meals he gets daily are:
Breakfast
A smoothie with fruit & greek yoghurt (with a half portion of Futurelife)
Or
Breakfast cereal (Futurlife with Almond milk)
Or
2 slices of toast with peanut butter (once a week)
( fyi... Futurelife is a SA Breakfast cereal. It is very good and was developed specifically for AIDS patients. This is not a crappy breakfast cereal.)

Lunch
Hot school meals. His teachers keep an eye on his meals and only allow a reasonable portion. He seldom has the pudding. We actually tried no puddings but the teachers felt that was unfair on him... So he gets the 'healthier' puddings.

Dinner
He has dinner at After school club. A sandwich, fruit and a juice. He is allowed the treat (chocolate biscuit) if Daddy agrees when he gets picked up but only gets that once or twice (so we know what he has had)

If he is peckish he gets fruit.

We do give him treats as we thought not doing so would not actually help the situation.

Will they give him the help he needs Telling him what he should or should not eat will not help. He knows this already. I am concerned that the focus will be on his weight and not the actual issue. I can be given as many diets as they like but it will not fix the issue.

If anyone has any knowledge of this process please let me know.

Thank you.

Ps. Sorry it's long. Didn't want to drip feed.

Thanks for your response. We gave him eggs this morning so will see. He say he is not hungry . i will look at getting some more protein in his breakfast. He was getting proper dinner at night but his school meals are very good and he was having two big meals a day and was putting on weight. So we thought that he was over eating.

I don't know what you might expect from the dietitian. But it's probably a good idea to get your DS's ASC diagnosed and not be fobbed off just because he's "high functioning". Kids with ASCs can have food issues for all sorts of reasons, anxiety/comfort eating or sensory issues with taste/texture or problems with unfamiliarity etc. It does take time to go through CAMHS but an ASC is likely to affect many aspects of his life and not just his schooling, and in the long term a diagnosis is likely to get him access to more of the right kinds of help. A diagnosis will help other professionals to focus on the real issues.