My anorexic 9-year-old

[sheshe2]

My 9-year-old daughter was starving herself to death. And somehow, God forgive me, I didn’t notice until it was almost too late.

We were busy running from soccer to swim lessons to play dates. But that’s no excuse. The mere idea of a fourth-grader becoming anorexic was so foreign, so wild and so far-fetched, that it never crossed my mind.

My daughter had always been a picky eater and small for her age — less than six pounds at birth. She didn’t like to eat much, and I didn’t worry about it.

Then one day she asked for help with her sunscreen. She walked up, wearing her purple-and-blue swimsuit, and I squirted a blob of white lotion onto my palms and spread it across her back and shoulders. My fingers felt what had somehow escaped my eyes — pointy bones protruding like little bird wings. Over the bones stretched a thin layer of skin.

What the hell was going on?

snip/

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/06/my_anorexic_9_year_old/

[Demo_Chris]

1. Interesting link. Rec.

[calimary]

2. Damn. What people will put themselves through to be thin.

A young friend of ours died of it. Morbidly obese, and had gastric bypass surgery and he lost 300 pounds in a year's time. It was too rapid a loss for his system to absorb, and a blood clot dislodged, found its way to his heart, and BANG. Killed him like a thief in the night.

[sakabatou]

3. Tragic

[freshwest]

4. ...