Lots of info on here. As a pediatric nurse and someone who has dealt with a kid with an eating disorder, I have a great deal of knowledge about this condition. As with all health issues here on CD, I find some of the posts appalling, others just incorrect, and some factual. Same with some of the advice.
It is highly unlikely that a 13 yo male is done growing. Eating disorders have nothing to do with whether someone is eating "normal" food or not. A problem with anorexia is that it is often unrecognized until it's pretty far along b/c the person is eating so "healthily". The fact that the person turns down "junk" food is often considered positive by others. People will say stuff like "I wish I had your willpower", etc. The medical definition of childhood obesity is a BMI >95%.
Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Childhood: Basics - DNPAO - CDC
This is a looser standard than for adults, b/c paraphrasing what some others have said, some kids gain weight before they gain the height, and so forth.
There is an eating disorder called "anorexia athletica", also "exercise bulimia". It's generally accepted these days that athlete's eating disorders are really no different than anyone else's. Often they use the sport as an excuse, but their behaviors are the same.
National Eating Disorder Information Centre - Know the Facts - Definitions
Exercise & Eating Disorders - Exercise Bulimia, the new eating disorder
Eating disorders do not always indicate a dysfunctional family. I recall an ED article I read once, about some research done in Denver. Supposedly a large percentage of these patients had parents, especially fathers, who were engineers. The article went on to disparage the engineering personality and blame these parents. I thought the person did not have a clue that there is a huge engineering community here, with all the high tech companies. It was simply coincidence. You could do a study somewhere else where there was a large concentration of say, artists or lawyers and find the same thing, that is, a preponderance of patients will have parents in that occupation.
Nutritionists can be helpful, but the doc needs to be involved. For example, my kid's heart rate dropped to a level that the doctor told her was getting into the dangerous category, which is a side effect of anorexia. The dr. said if it stayed that low she would have to be hospitalized. The nutritionist said her HR was probably low b/c she was an athlete. While athletes often do have lower HRs than sedentary people, the dr had been monitoring the HR and it had gone below what is "normal" even for a trained athlete. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
ETA: I wasn't going to do this, but my curiosity got the better of me. I found a BMI for kids calculator and did the calculations. (I think Hopes knows from the Pgh forum how I like to crunch numbers.) Anyway, at 12, 5'9 and 170# his BMI was 95, just at the "obese" range. This summer, at 5'9" and 150, it was 85% which is considered "at risk for obesity". So it's probably good that he lost those 20#. The problem with eating disorders is that some people just can't stop losing, once they get started, and they develop all sorts of bad habits, such as exercise bulimia, skipping or drastically cutting down on food, etc. I will say, I"m sometimes surprised when we calculate the BMIs at the office. A lot of kids at the 85th percentile don't look overweight at all. I agree with the docs that say you have to look at the whole child.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
