Comments on: Can a 3-year-old have an Eating Disorder?

By: Charles Fishman

Charles Fishman — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:18:14 +0000

Dear Christy,

It sounds like your child has an acute, perhaps infectious problem.

Eating disorders are chronic processes.

Hopefully with a little time, input from your GP–and your loving attention, this should be readily resolved.

By: christy hunter

christy hunter — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:52:17 +0000

My daughter has not eaten solid for for 7 days she will only eat things like yogurt, tomato soup and baby food. If the food has an apple sauce like consistansy or any thing in it period she freaks out. Every time i mention food she panics. the doctor says she has a sore throat but she won’t even chew gum and she loves gun……. i am so worried this is something more than a sore throat

By: Charles Fishman

Charles Fishman — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:20:55 +0000

Dear Cassie,

Your daughter doesn’t have an eating disorder like anorexia. She’s too young. But I think I’m hearing that that you don’t seem to have a doctor you are comfortable with. That’s the first crucial step – finding a doctor.

The problem may be stress related but getting a doctor you can relay on will be an important first step in decreasing some of your stress.

May I ask where you live?

By: cassie

cassie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:39:46 +0000

I have a three year old daughter who is going through the same things as alot of the other people have wrote on here, she gags at all foods, refuses to eat and is already very slim, but we have not noticed any hair loss. I grow more and more worried about this as she is very pale sometimes saying that she is constatly tired and seems to get ill very quickly (even though she may her her low immunity from me) I love her so much it kills me to see her not eat her food, she will eat fruit, infact loves bananas and grapes but then it comes to dinner or tea, the fight is on and she would rather sit there all night than to eat. Her 1 year olod brother eats EVERYTHING, and has a far better appetite, and i dont know if she is trying to rebel againt this??
Im lost and dont know where to turn, there are tears, crying, tantrums, gagging, vomitting every single time we eat.

My other half does not think doctors will be able to help and i suspect he think i am exaggerating the situation. But I want to be sure that there is no under lying problems that i am missing.
Plus i read above that family stress can be the cause? My other half got “laid off” a year ago and has been unable to find anything in the current climate, obviously things are tight and pressure is high to provide for our children. I hope we have not caused this ourselves, i will be heart broken.
Any advice is more than welcome x thank you

By: Charles Fishman

Charles Fishman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:24:33 +0000

Dear Lisa,
First your medical doctor has to see and evaluate her–to be sure that their is no medical reason that should be addressed. If nothing is found, then stress in the family relationships should be assessed. Kids are very, very sensitive to stress in the family.A family therapist in your area should be able to help.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:28:07 +0000

We two have a 3 1/2 girl who makes herself throw up and to get her to eat is like pulling hair so to speak.she will tell us that she cannot eat and you ask her why and her reply is that she cannot eat. She will tell us she is hungry but when you give her the food she just looks at it and refuses to eat. she is starting to lose her hair and we are beside ourselves. even drinking milk she has a problem with it. How do you get counseling from a physcotherapist at three years old when they cannot even tell you what is going on? We are at an absolute loss as to what to do. As one replied, this behavior is getting worse by the day.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:57:24 +0000

Hi Amanda, I’ve been searching the web for cases like this – my son demonstrates all the same symptoms though it has not yet reached a stage where he’s started losing hair. Meals are very regularly a struggle regardless of what the meal is. We now ask him what he wants for lunch / dinner and make that. But even then he looks at whatever is prepared and starts gagging.

This usually ends up with him making himself throw up. His diet is severely limited to rice mixed with soup, nutrigrain (only recently accepted) and bread. He doesn’t eat any meat, nor vegetables and goes into the gagging-throwing up cycle if he sees either. We’ve tried lots of different foods prepared in lots of different ways but he either refuses to try them, or else will take a miniscule nibble then start gagging / throwing up.

In the last week this has extended to drinking warm milk as well, which he nows absolutely refuses to touch (after a week of the gagging / throwing up routine). I have considered taking him to a child psychologist as I have never come across another case of children this young gearing themselves up mentally to be physically sick from looking at food / drink.

We’ve also tried just not giving him anything to eat to work up an appetite but he has gone a day without eating and still isn’t interested when we give him something to eat after that. And I’m afraid if we do that his stomach will shrink and he will eat even less. This has been going on intermittently for about a year and a half, but seems to be slowly escalating month by month.