Worried about easy child

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flutterbee

Guest
easy child is 5'10" and weighs 130 pounds. I calculated his BMI for his age on the CDC website and it's 18.7 which they say is a healthy weight - under 18.5 is underweight, so he's right on the cusp. I tell him all the time he needs to eat. Right now, he eats about one meal a day - lunch. He used a scale at my parents that told him that he is 8.4% body fat. :( He thought that was pretty cool.

What he does eat isn't healthy. No vegetables - unless you count french fries :faint:. No fruits - very rarely he'll eat some grapes. He has vitamins - he doesn't take them.

Today he bent down to feed the dog and stood up and everything got black and his head hurt. Told him that was his blood pressure dropping and that it happened to me all the time when I was underweight. Told him he needs to eat. I tell him every day.

He is tired all the time. He slept 15 hours last night. When he gets sick - a cold, for example - he is really sick for 3 weeks. Wynter got the same cold and it was only bad for about 2 days.

He works until 9pm tonight. I gave him some money to get something to eat and told him to get something at least resembling healthy - to go to the deli and get a ham and cheese sandwich. Told him he needs to eat breakfast every morning, even if it's just toast. His girlfriend is also always telling him that he needs to eat.

I don't know what to do. I'm really worried. He's just getting thinner and thinner. He's cold so easy now. It used to be if it hit 65 he was sweating.

What do I do?
 

everywoman

Well-Known Member
I think all you can do is provide healthy snacks. My difficult child is almost 6'3" and only weighs about 135---and that is up 10 lbs. He is so thin. Even when he was on medications, he didn't gain weight. He eats all the time---everything in sight. We did try the protien shakes for a while and he gained a little.
 
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flutterbee

Guest
We have healthy snacks of every shape and size. There is so much food in this house that I literally can not fit anymore in. Not all of it is healthy, of course, but the vast majority of it is. There is always fresh fruits and veggies, yogurt, etc that can be easily grabbed. I make sure that I buy stuff that is healthy and that he likes.

He just doesn't eat.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Would he read any magazines about men's health? He might get inspired to treat his body better. Then again, he's still a teen, and it may take a few more years before he wises up.

Weight problems are so aggravating, no matter which end of the spectrum they fall! I've got a kid at each end and (thankfully) one in the middle.

My skinny guy gets dizzy a lot too. His BMI is around 17, I think. When he was sick with Crohn's I think it fell down to around 13... maybe lower. In those days, he had no fat -- his butt disappeared and he looked emaciated. Now he's just very lean and muscular -- still doesn't eat enough because of medications, which is why he's usually up late at night getting something to eat. His younger brother, though, is about 10 pounds overweight because of medications and I have to stay on him about the kinds of foods and quantities he eats.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I agree weight problems no matter what end are aggravating. Wish I had some good advice but my easy child is about 5 feet 3 or 4 inches tall and weighs 92-94 pounds which is a BMI of 16 which is under weight.

She too skips meals at times and it drives me crazy.

If you find something that works, please share. In the meantime understanding hugs sent your way.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Miss KT doesn't eat, either. But she has headaches, and feels dizzy, and is tired...try eating something, you big dummy! She says she eats when she's hungry, but I believe she no longer knows when she's hungry. If you find an answer, please pass it on.
 

meowbunny

New Member
I was one of those kids who thought food was a waste of time. They used to call me Skinny Minnie Mouse in school. Sadly, I fit the name. There were twigs bigger than me.

One thing that helped me was my mother insisted I take daily vitamins. I hated them, but I had a choice -- take the dang pills or walk to school. No pills, no ride. She also forced me to eat at least one piece of fruit a day and she watched me eat it. No fruit, no going anywhere after school. Yup, had to come home, eat the stupid fruit and then I could go wherever. Got the message across (took 3 months but I did get the message) and she could then trust me to eat fruit daily without her supervision.

Good luck on finding a way to get him to eat healthy. For some of us, it just doesn't happen until we're either forced to or we grow up.
 
Heather,

I understand your concerns. Our difficult child is very thin, and he has the dizziness when he stands up suddenly. He felt so faint one day the school called us to pick him up, the doctor checked him out and said -"You're fine". I wish he had said "You're fine, but eat, eat". LOL

He has lots of food sensitivity issues , but honestly, he thinks eating is a bore and a waste of time. I had the exact same problems as a teenager. Most food repulsed me and I had way too many other things to do to waste time on eating. I was teased endlessly for my low weight. (Oh for the good old days LOL)

I think that this problem is eventually worked out with growing maturity. I'm really not too concerned about our difficult child in this arena - because I think the appetite and weight will come with age. I would just keep on doing what you have done - providing the presence of good, health producing foods. Time is on your side!
 

katya02

Solace
I wish I had the answer. We've struggled with difficult child eating obsessively when younger and on medications - and becoming seriously obese. When he went off the medications at 14 (age of medical consent in Canada for mental health) he lost all the weight. When he came home in May after doing drugs all semester he was as thin as a rail. Now he's gained more than 30 lb after being on medications all summer. He obsesses over carbs, eats way too many. We're a pretty low-carb household (no sugar, no white flour, little flour at all, no rice, potatoes etc.) but he 'needs' his huge bowls of cereal. And his counselor, who is otherwise great, tells him he 'needs' a carb load at night. She's wrong, but it's what he wants to hear. Sigh.

I like the no vitamin-no ride, no fruit-no activity thing for slightly younger kids. Don't think I can work that one with difficult child, who's 20. But I hate to see him do this to himself.
 
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