Parents starving 17 year old and treating her like a toddler

[TobaccoFlower]

Just saw this in my news feed. What a weird story. It's like anorexia by proxy. There was nothing age appropriate in the house. They made her watch Tellytubbies and Thomas the Tank and they tried to stop the doctors giving her a feeding tube even though she was about 4 stone.

edition.cnn.com/2025/02/15/australia/australia-malnourished-girl-neglect-hnk-intl/index.html

I saw this a while ago and it's very disturbing. I don't understand how it took 17 years for this to be picked up. The poor girl was half dead before she was rescued.

I have no idea what was wrong with the parents. There was obviously something very wrong with them and she was severely abused. It's a mystery why teachers, friends, family, Drs, no one acted.

😳 well that’s one of the most bizarre stories I have read. What an odd situation.

I think she was home-schooled hence no Teachers noticing but the Dance Teachers did report their concerns luckily.

I can't believe that they refused a feeding tube and praised the body if another patient on the ward.

If it was reported, why was she half dead before something was done?

If it was reported, why was she half dead before something was done?

I know. It sounds as though they should have been reported a long time ago.

This is my point. She was the size of a 9 year old and severely malnourished; she didn't go through puberty yet no one picked up on it. You would have thought a Dr thought it strange.

Then there's her parents wiping her after the toilet at 17 years old.

Poor girl, I remember reading about this a while ago. There seemed to be an element of the parents being obsessed with the idea of her being a ballerina, and therefore being very petite. But they went to such extremes, ironically she would never have had the physical or mental strength to be a professional ballerina with what they did to her.

I worry for her circumstances now that the parents have been jailed? She’s 3 years into adulthood so not like she’ll be sent to a family or fostered out. Is she capable of working, living alone, doing adult things?

I read this a few weeks ago and found it unbelievably sad.
But since they have stunted her development physically and emotionally she seems very vulnerable as an adult. I assume there are no wider family for support

I saw this a few weeks ago. There was a thread about it. Her brain development will be massively compromised. The brain alone needs 500 calories.

I really hope that social services over there will realise she is going to need care and support from someone. She won't be able to go from being starved and treated like a toddler to suddenly coping alone.

Oh sorry I didn't know that. I thought the trial had just happened

They told their daughter her stomach was looking full, and made comments that suggested she might get fat if she followed her doctors’ advice.
Awful.

In one of the videos in the article they seem to be rushing up/down stairs with her crouched over trying to keep up with them. It's sad to see.

It reminds me a bit of Dee Dee Blanchard trying to keep her daughter young and dependent, but without the constant unnecessary surgery. I think there was a similar french case.

This was the French model whose mother was desperate for her not to grow up
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_Caro