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Parenting

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Suddenly not eating much

5 replies

Strawberrypie33 · 30/01/2024 11:26

It's a hard topic for me because I had an eating disorder when I was a teenager due to being bullied for being "big" I ended up Anorexic and still to this day almost 34 years of age I still find it hard to eat at times. Anyways this is about my 11 year old son, (background) he was born prematurely 10 weeks early from then and onwards he always struggled to put on weight, we had to feed him high fat foods, he was also put on a hormonal growth pen because he's small in stature but he's now meeting expectations which we are thrilled.

Last week he had a bad stomach not an illness or virus just pain and nausea, the pain was middle-ish from the right it passed the next day so I stopped worrying it was something serious. He hasn't been eating well since, he's been having food but wasting it which is not him he's a great eater!. Yesterday he told me he had ham for his dinner and he's hungry for tea, me not thinking much of it at the time, I logged into the parent pay app this morning to make sure he has enough dinner money and he only spent £1 so that made me think he's had a sandwich and that's it all day, he didn't have breakfast either that morning. I'm very worried tbh and I don't know what to think, shall I ask him if there's anything he feels to tell me? I don't want to be on his case since he's now in the moody stage if life, I'm just worried.

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CrispsandCheeseSandwich · 30/01/2024 11:41

Last week he had a bad stomach not an illness or virus just pain and nausea

When last week?

To be honest, if it's just been a few days I'd probably assume he had a bit of a virus and his appetite is reduced after it.
I'd wait a few days and see if it comes back before doing anything else.

BertieBotts · 30/01/2024 11:52

IME it's quite common for their appetite to be reduced after an illness, don't worry. I'm sure he'll go back to eating normally next week. It could be that he picked up a bit of a virus and the symptoms weren't overt.

If you wanted to check in you could say "DS I went to top up your card and noticed you haven't spent very much, are you feeling OK or still a bit poorly?"

It could be an anxiety sort of feeling, my DS gets anxiety which affects his appetite. The doctor said if it's a virus, it will be gone in 2-3 days, if it lasts longer it's probably anxiety.

Either way, I would definitely not approach it like "is there something you want to tell me?" that sounds like he's done something wrong and needs to confess! I'd approach it like "This isn't like you, are you OK?"

If he's had stomach pains and lack of appetite for a week then it's probably worth taking him to the doctor.

Strawberrypie33 · 30/01/2024 13:40

@BertieBotts thank you!, I'm sure if it was a virus but like you've just said it may well of been just not bad. I'll word it differently to what I mentioned, just worrying because of everything we've gone through to get him where he us now, the stomach pain started last Thursday so I'm guessing it's been 5 days, he hasn't had the pain or nausea since, I'll keep tabs for now and see if he improves.

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Emma8924 · 30/01/2024 19:24

i had a stomach virus when I was a teenager I remeber it distinctly because my mom asked me if I was worried about putting on weight -she was convinced I was starting an eating disorder because I didn’t eat properly for about 2 months after. But I just didn’t feel hungry after this bug. Gradually I started to eat more each day. Try not to worry too much x

Strawberrypie33 · 05/02/2024 19:18

@Emma8924 thank you, it did turn out because he was scared of eating but he continued flushing out straight after eating, the doctors think it's possibly IBS he's going for further testing and seeing a dietary nurse (can't spell the big word) 🙈

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