Jamie, I'm not trying to frighten you -- just share our experience with our easy child. She fell apart just before her 8th birthday last spring. She has always been an anxious child, but suddenly she was refusing to go to school and experiencing frequent somatic complaints (nausea and stomachaches). She then became convinced that she would choke and die if she ate anything. When she lost 5 pounds in 5 weeks, she was hospitalized and fed through an NG tube. Today, with medications and intensive therapeutic interventions, she is doing great.
In retrospect, we think she had a Post-Traumatic Stress response to her brother's prolonged intense manic reaction to Zoloft, which had occurred the previous fall and included nightly raging and aggression toward family members. I'm wondering if that's what's going on with your easy child.
I happen to be pretty proactive myself and wouldn't ignore what you're seeing. When all this started with our easy child last spring, difficult child 1's psychiatrist told us that easy child siblings frequently need their own psychological supports and gave us referrals for psychiatrists for easy child. So even before things spun out of control with the choking phobia, easy child had started to work with a psychiatrist (who does therapy -- we see no tdocs). And I was glad that we had the support in place when things got really bad.
This is all my long-winded way of saying that I would encourage you to talk to your pediatrician or difficult child's psychiatrist about locating appropriate support for your easy child. Sending hugs your way.
