Hi IM's,
My teenage daughter has recently been diagnosed as celiac.
Trouble is over the past few years she has battled with an eating disorder, in the last 12 months she has really improved on being less restrictive, not obsessing and not monitoring everything she eats. This diagnosis has really thrown her, she is really scared this will make her slip back into old unhealthy habits with the eating disorder now that she literally HAS to do all the things that caused her issues in the past.
What I'm asking is has anyone else gone through this? What can I do to help and ease this for her? I want to support her through this as best as possible. She has come so far in the last twelve months and I completely understand her concerns, I don't want this to make her spiral out again.
TIA x
2 Replies
Take her to a qualified dietician.
Definitely a Dietician would be helpful and a Psychologist.
I became so sick that I felt I could not eat. Every time I ate, I experienced things like reflux, stomach pain and rapid heart beat. So this was the beginning of me avoiding food. Negative reinforcement. When I found out I could not consume gluten, I restricted further and then as a result lost a great deal of weight. Everyone kept telling me how great I looked! but I was so sick.
At first it was about the gluten, down the track it became about the weight loss. I realised I developed an eating disorder when people would tell me I would fit in clothes I thought I couldn't, when I became focused on the number on the scales and kept telling myself just a little more and finally when I tried to make myself throw up. I did not tell anyone but my mother told me to please not lose any more weight.
There are that many gluten free products now so it would help her to aim more towards the swapping than the restrictive eating. She needs help to do this x