Symptoms of anorexia

[tubismybub]

Other than significant and intentional weight loss in a thirteen year old what other signs would you look for and what sort of things do suffers do to throw you off the scent?

ask to eat their dinner in their rooms
tell you they ate at a friends
going to the loo after eating to vomit
dull eyes
stones in pockets if you force weigh them
after excessive weight loss you can notice body hair, discoloured teeth, hair loss,
pls ask anything you need to I'm a recovered bulimic and bordered on anorexia as 12-16 yr old so know all the tricks

ok, these come to mind off the top of my head (I had anorexia in my late teens):

hiding food, e.g. secretely shovelling food into a napkin and then binning it

saying they've already eaten when out (at school, friend's house, whatever)

spreading leftover food out on the plate to make it seem like less than it actually is

or piling the plate full of lettuce leaves so that it looks like a huge portion but really contains only 40 calories

cooking for other people (excessively - I used to bake elaborate cakes all the time but wouldn't eat any of it)

exercising obsessively - often in secret so I guess hard to tell

drinking things like marmite, bovril, those 2 calorie soup sachets etc. all the time

talking about food a lot, being unusually interested in food

some good points there piffle
also, to check for bulimia, see whether there's a small callus on the index finger knuckle or whether just that one knuckle is red when your dd returns from the toilet. (there's even a medical name for that callus - can't remember it though)

also if you are seriously thinking of an eating disorder, seek help fast before it escalates and has serious helath repercussion. Wight loss in a non overweight child is an alarm bell...

If this is you own dd, how is your relationship with her generally?

also wearing clothes that are far too big so they are hiding their figures

definatly the hiding food thing. Also, i used to make a plate of crumbs and say i had eaten in the kitchen.

Breath gets smelly after a while and you get hairier too

i still suffer now and i drink a LOT of water so I dont feel hungry, finding reasons for sending you out of the room (i used to wrap my food in newspaper then put it in the bin. dull hair, smelly breath, white spots on nails, loose teeth, hair falling out, i would talk in great detail about the food that i pretended to eat. i also (im ashamed to say) rant about overweight people. its not about wanting to be thin its about wanting control/punish yourself. and the problem is its an addiction, like any other.

It's not my child so it's hard for me to get a true picture but her parents are keeping a very close eye. She appears to eat well around others and she's a very sensible and apparently open girl but I'm worried that is giving people a false sense of all being ok.

Sorry not making myself very clear but after a little chat with her I felt reassured because she was open and honest about her weight loss and I thought 'ok she would be more defensive if there was a problem' but now I'm not so sure that I'm reading the situation right? Oh I don't know, I just have a feeling but don't want to over react.

interesting MOM my hair starting coming out in clumps, but i did have more downy hair iykwim

hope i'm wrong

its a tough one coz sufferers tend to come across as having it under control til it gets too late and can be v sneaky about it. have you tried BEAT?

That's what i'm afraid of lissielou.

ok i have a question about anorexia but should i start a new thread?

no join this one saves me reading two threads.

ok on the other side of things how do you know if you are heading towards an eating disorder?

with me when ever anyone mentioned anorexia i would laugh it off. people like me dont get eating disorders, i can control my food intake so im living on apple skin and water (dried pasta at 1 point) so inm pretty sure i can up my food intake when i want. but it doesnt work like that. after a while you realise that youve not eaten for a week, and then the adrenaline kicks in and you get a buzz. so i suppose when you start to enjoy not eating youre heading toward a prob iykwim. if anyone wants to CAT me about this im happy to talk about it. my lil sis is an anorexic too, as was my aunty

with me when ever anyone mentioned anorexia i would laugh it off. people like me dont get eating disorders, i can control my food intake so im living on apple skin and water (dried pasta at 1 point) so inm pretty sure i can up my food intake when i want. but it doesnt work like that. after a while you realise that youve not eaten for a week, and then the adrenaline kicks in and you get a buzz. so i suppose when you start to enjoy not eating youre heading toward a prob iykwim. if anyone wants to CAT me about this im happy to talk about it. my lil sis is an anorexic too, as was my aunty

can't cat but if you have msn i'm pink__diamonds at hotmail dot com