My 9year old has been stealing food. She takes it out of the kitchen and hides the packet. She is in no way short on meals or snacks.
Now it's at a point where she's putting herself in danger. I understand that being overweight is a problem, diabetes etc..
But she ran away in the Easter holidays because I told her she couldn't have her Easter eggs all at once. She packed two bags, hid them in the back garden, took the gate key out of my bag and ran away with her Easter eggs. She went to the park. She pulled a stool up to the gate from under the gate to stop the dogs running away.
Tonight she disappeared again. 9.15pm her sister noticed she wasn't in bed. After checking everywhere in the house, she checked the back gate to find it open. I drove to the park, my 19yr old rang grandad, my 17yr old rang dad, I rang the police. My dad found her walking home with a takeaway. She'd been to the shop for crisps and sweets, then the takeaway for burger and chips. There is food in the house. There's also BBQ food left over from earlier today. She's also stole money out of my purse to pay for it all.
She lied to the police and said her friend gave her it. This was planned, she took the money when she knew I wouldn't remember if I'd spent it. She'd hid the gate keys and she waited for everyone else to go to bed.
I had bumps with my other 3, last one is 12, but nothing even nearly close to this.
Right now the food problem is my main priority because anything could happen to her while she's running away to eat. She recently had surgery and had her weight and height checked, she's in the 99th percentile, she is not starving. She drinks plenty, mostly dilute or water. What am I missing? I must be doing something wrong