One day in my daughter’s last
year of junior high, she came home from school and she said, “Mom I am getting
fat.”
“What!?” was my first
response because she is X-small in size. I stopped what I was doing and looked
at her. At that moment she looked smaller than X-small. “Why did you say that
you are getting fat?” I asked.
“When I look in the mirror I
see how fat I am.”
“You are not fat,” I said, but
I was concerned and I decided to pay attention to her. That day I had cooked one
of her favorite meals —stew chicken, red beans, basmati rice and salad. When I dished
out her food she looked at it and frowned as she said, “I am not hungry.”
“What did you eat?”
“The bagel and cream cheese I
took to school for lunch.”
“It is now 4:00 o’clock so lunch was 5 hours ago.”
“Mom, I am not hungry!”
“You are going to eat some of
the food that is on the table so sit and eat.”
She sat down and I did as
well. I watch my daughter pick up the fork and struggle to eat the food. It
hurt to see the moments when she was acting as though she was going to vomit. I
would tell her to stop and take deep breaths. She ate four spoonfuls of food
and then I told her to stop, but I watched her all evening, making sure she did
not go to the bathroom to vomit. Later that night I made her a cup of hot
chocolate and I gave her 6 Crix biscuits with cheese, which is another of her
favorite meal, but it was a struggle for her to eat. She drank half of the hot chocolate
and ate three Crix biscuits with cheese. Again I kept an eye on her all night, even
when she was sleeping. I was upset with myself because I did not notice that
this was going on with her. The next morning we went to the doctor. When the
doctor weighed her she had lost 12 pounds from the last time she was at the
office. The doctor asked her what was going on. I listened to my daughter try
to convince her doctor that she was fat.
“You have been coming to me
since you were a baby and you have never been fat,” Her doctor said, then she gave
her a real good talk and the final thing she said to her was, “I am giving you
one month to put on 5 pounds. If you don’t, I am going to admit you to the
hospital. That was the turning point. She is still small in size, but eating is
not a problem anymore. Pay attention to your daughter/s…
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