Lock for Fridge

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ML

Guest
It is exhausting trying to keep d from eating nonstop! Some if it is healthy, some not. But even eating too much of a good thing isn't. Could this eating (disorder?) be part of his anxiety? Is it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to eat like this?

He is such a beautiful child.This emerging weight problem greatly concerns me. Any thoughts? Does therapy work?

ML
 
M

ML

Guest
No, actully, he's not. He takes Celexa for his anxiety and tons of supplements. He's tended towards this behavior for some time now. But some days are worse and I notice it much more. The problem is worse by the fact that he isn't into sports. Though one good thing is that he wants to try Tae Kwan Do (first time he's showed enthusiasm about anything physical which is exciting). Also the summer should have him more active. I just have to do a better job of only having healthy choices. I think over the course of the weekend he ate 2 or 3 baskets (not the pint, the bigger ones) of strawberries. He needs to learn some other self comforting behaviors I think.
 

Christy

New Member
Not sure about the appetite issue, but I did want to mention that my son has been very successful with Tae Kwon Do. He has never done well in any extracuricular activity so we are thrilled to see that he takes an interest and behaves pretty well during TKD. He has been involved in it for about a year and a half. It lets him feel a part of something without having to be part of a team and the graduations (from belt to belt) give him a sense of acomplishmnet.

Best of luck to you,
Christy
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Strawberries, hey, that's not bad! Has he been seen lately by a pediatrician or psychiatrist and has this issue been mentioned specifically?
What is his reaction when you keep food away? Does he have a meltdown or is he just super persistent?
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Michele,
I can totally relate but have no great suggestions to add. In the last year difficult child has gained 30 pounds. I too am worried and we try to have healthy stuff which he chooses once in a while but we need to get better at not having a lot of junk in the house. Some of it's not junk but things like cheese, sandwich meat, and other things we need to have in the house. He has major meltdowns over not getting food when he wants it and some of them turn physical. Just wanted to let you know you are not alone.
 

jannie

trying to survive....
We have major food issues as well. So many of difficult child arguments are over food. His portions are huge...and he stuffs the food in his face. Just last night I was thinking about how much food he would actually it if we just left him on his own.....

The best thing you can do is just keep plenty of healthy around the house. Perhaps the doctor has some suggestions...Does Celexa cause increased appetitite? I think, though, that even if difficult child was not on abilify he would he too much because it is now just a habbit....
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Locking the fridge isn't a good solution; just raisies frustration levels, in my humble opinion.

kt has had major weight issues - a combination of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), anxiety & medications. We've worked (& are still working) on teaching kt portion control.

Mostly we are teaching kt to be aware of her body & what it's telling her. We don't argue over eating. We ask her to stop & wait 5 minutes, have a glass of water & see if her body is telling her it's hungry. At first, it was always hungry. After a few weeks though, kt began to say realize that her body wasn't hungry. We would redirect her to an activity or task at that point.

kt has begun to slim out (& again part of this is natural, therapist feels most of it has been the work that we've been doing with her). We can see kt's anxiety building & along with that anxiety her eating.

Because our difficult children react so emotionally, we tend to forget that our little wonders have little to no body awareness or forget to address that issue.
 

Tiapet

Old Hand
I don't know where you are at in the process at this stage of the thread, I just came in on it. We tried the above thought of waiting and water and healthy foods, leaving stuff out. It didn't work. Middle difficult child developed this eating disorder thing about 3 years ago now. She upped the anty with stealing food and hiding it (I won't even begin to tell you the places we've found food!). She was not on any medications that caused her to eat to much. Clonidine will cause them to want to eat about 30 minutes after they get it. That we knew so always give them something. But she would be eating all through out the night, getting up in the middle of the night, stealing through the day by sneaking ever so quietly (with someone right by). She perfected the art of it. Doesn't sound like you have it that bad. Yes she did put on a bit of weight too. We had to do something as it got out of control and nothing we did worked. We went into lock down. First it was a locked cabinet that we put all foods that we thought she'd get into, like snacks and such. Then she started raiding the refrig for all sorts of things. We then had to lock that down. Now we've found her raiding our pantry closet and even my spice/cooking closet. She has stolen cake mixes, pudding mixes, canned goods and opened and eaten all of it. I could go on but I think this paints a clear picture.

I am not advocating for locking down anything but only if there becomes a problem. It is a hassle and it's not good. It doesn't make anyone feel good and it actually just makes them start seeking out other things (as you see above). We've found noting that works and mine has been in therapy all these years for it and still nothing. Currently, however, she was recently put on Abilify and that has sort of helped for the night times. We are still locked down but that in addition to the Clonidine actually keeps her asleep through the night and she no longer wanders unless she does not get her snack/dessert before bed. Then somehow she over rides it and gets up.

No lie, the child can be sound asleep , us calling out her name repeatedly quite loudly and even at one point yelling her name and she does not respond but if we say "dessert or food", she jumps right up our of a sound sleep (and yes she is sleeping because she was snoring and drooling). It's very very odd to say the least. No one has any answers for us to date. I'm always open to thoughts on this one! :(
 
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butterflydreams

Guest
My difficult child will eat and eat too. He will get up during the night and eat. Could be several bowls of cereal. If there is something like ice cream bars, he will eat and eat. During the day, there has been times too where he will eat bread. I'm talking if there is hot dog buns or hamburger buns, he will just grab and grab the buns and eat them plain. For awhile before his last psychiatric hospital stay, he really started sneaking food. I haven't so much seen too much since he has been home this last week.

I have always wondered how to get this behavior to stop. He really has gained probably 50 lbs in the last couple of years from it. I have gotten where I won't keep too many snacks in the house, only buying as we need it or just enough for the single purpose. I used to buy the packs of snacks to put in school lunches but they would be gone and not be available for lunches, so I quit buying them. If my daughter makes a cake or something like that, difficult child will more than likely get into it after going to bed, even if I gave him some earlier in the evening.

Christy
 

4sumrzn

New Member
Well, there was a period of time that we put velcro strips layered on the fridge handles. difficult child would go through the kitchen at night. The very first time, she was around 4.......you wouldn't believe what I found when I heard a noise in the middle of the night. Then, we would find food under her bed.....bagels, cream cheese, apples & even tubs of butter (yuck). Hmmm....the dogs started catching on & "tattling" on her. One of my poor poochies got stuck under a bed trying to get to the bottom of the peanut butter jar! Anyway, she was gaining weight at that time. We went into major lock down. Her medications have changed since then also. She still still gets up every night to come to our bedroom floor & I KNOW she checks out the peanut butter cabinet while she's getting a sip of water.....she leaves the spoon in the sink & smells of pb when she plops on the floor of my room if I haven't hopped up out of bed to catch her first. That is when "someone" forgets to lock the cabinet. Things are still pretty bad when it comes to food for her....if people around her are not on the same schedule, she will try her best to eat along with them & I know she can't be hungry.

I will say though....for the comments coming about teenage boys....my easy child can eat like he has some bottomless pit!!!!! He's athletic & skinny as a rail....but, the boy has no problem eating a few peices of bread before he eats 2 sandwiches or scarfing down a whole tube of cin rolls. He can eat 2 dinners in one night. He's a carb, junk food, unhealthy junkie. Guess what? I try not to get too bent over it because it's all my fault for starting him out with food the way I did & not enforcing it now....I was strict in a healthy way for him & did not let him have "junk". I caved since difficult child. I let him have some pleasures he enjoys, food being important to him & soothes him. I let him have a Mountain Dew or Coke if we are eating out & he is so excited to this day (so, at least I kept up one thing...no pop)! I blame myself for that & will more than likely regret it.....being full aware of my own eating disorder. Sorry I rambled so much on your post!!!
 

Tiapet

Old Hand
4sumrzn - I'm glad, well not really, to see that mine is not the only one that eats and hides such things. We've done the peanut butter (entire large jar found under bed, mashed into carpet, under pillow), jelly, ketchup (yes just plain ketchup!), plain sugar, 4 bananas at a time, cranberry sauce, cereal by the box, breads, basically anything that is not nailed down. Ice cream! Ugh, I can't tell you how many time's we've found ice cream cartons with melted ice cream getting all over things.

One of the other things we also had to do (and in Reilly's book - I think it's his) is stripping her room to just a bed so that she was left with no more hiding places because she was hiding stuff in her dresser drawers in between clothing (ewwwwww!). Her whole therapy team advocated removal so there was no more hiding places. I wish I had more lockable cabinets but I don't because pantry is not safe and I've run out of space. With the prices being what they are I can't afford to only buy a little at a time and not stay stocked and run to store constantly or I would so nothing was in house. :(
 

Loving Abbey 2

Not really a Newbie
My difficult child has always eaten alot. Especially during growth spurts, she will eat two or three times as much as me! The one thing I have been very careful of is never to tell her to finish her plate. That old method of finish your plate (and ignoring your "full" signal), has resulted in many people who are not aware of thier body telling them they are no longer hunger.
So there are a few different things that I can think of: 1. Food is comforting, being constantly feels makes people feel not so "empty". 2. Food is something that can be controled when one feels thier life is out of control or they are out of control of thier own body (this is also true of toileting issues). 3. Bipolar kids can have constant urges to eat and gorge themselves (esp. on carbs and anything with sugar-natural or otherwise). 4. Most of our kids are oppostional, so the harder you push an issue the harder they will push back. 5. Maybe something like Pica, I know it's food items, but it does seem a bit similar. and 6. If the issues your child presents with in addition to the eating are complex maybe (RARE) prada Willie Syndrome.

Good Luck to you!!!

Maybe it's time for a new therapist or an eating disorders clinic, most children's and/or psychiatric hospital have one.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
We had huge problems with this. Wizard ate wehn anxious, bored, mad, basically if he had a feeling he thought he should eat a huge amount of something.

He also spent years sneaking and hoarding food. Part of it is his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Part was medications. We did have the doctor test to make sure it wasn't an ulcer before we attributed it to anything else. even kids can get ulcers.

Some food sensitivities can create behaviors like this. Allergies can too, according to our allergist.

We worked VERY hard NOT to fight the food battle over meals. We also made sure we NEVER referred to him as fat, chubby, or anything else like that. It makes the problem worse.

It really IS something you need to speak openly about with his doctors.

We did have to make sure his bed was NOT on a frame, jsut on the floor. He then had less room to hide food.

I do think most ssri's can cause weight gain.

Susie
 
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