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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMedical mystery: Iowa boy, 12, has no urge to eat, drink
Very alarming. I hope the doctors can figure things out for this poor kid.
Take a bite.
Take a bite.
Take a bite.
Take a drink.
Take a drink.
Take a bite.
These parents have been forced to jabber away like this in the last year because of their son's mysterious illness: He lacks all impulse to eat or drink. And he might be the only person in the world burdened with this bizarre medical condition.
Michael, 43, who prods most often, is a desperate father. He's become a verbal robot in a grim campaign to keep his boy fed.
Take a bite.
Take a bite.
Take a drink.
"We feel like we're seeing him deteriorate in front of our eyes," Michael said.
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/kyle-munson/2014/10/26/landon-jones-medical-mystery-urge-eat-drink/17950935/
Sheldon Cooper
(3,724 posts)I work with a guy with a gastronomy tube - he has full physical functions, drives a delivery truck, forklift, etc. I really wonder why they haven't taken this step much sooner. It's been a full year and they've still not done it? I'm curious.
YarnAddict
(1,850 posts)As a person who has had a number of surgeries and other invasive procedures, I think that should always be avoided, if possible. Pain, discomfort, reaction to anesthesia, possibility of infection . . .
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)I wondered if having him eat somewhere away from the TV would make any difference.
You know, "here's your dinner, sit here in the kitchen until you eat it." The article doesn't say he feels ill if he eats or anything - I guess I don't get why not having an "urge" to eat or drink precludes one from deliberately doing so (but then, I eat all the time whether I'm hungry or not. lol).
YarnAddict
(1,850 posts)It said a tube is the next step. I wonder if they've prescribed appetite stimulants.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)At 12, even if you have no urge to eat, you certainly should have the intelligence to understand that to stay alive you're going to need to eat. So you'd think they'd simply be able to set a meal down in front of him and say 'eat all of this in the next 20-30 minutes', rather than having to nag him about every single bite.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Then I don't hold out any hope that they'd take any helpful suggestions.
Of course, chances are that they probably don't actually have to tell him every bite, and that that occurred simply because a reporter was there - the observer alters the observed.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)I'm sure they've already tried some variation of the "here's your dinner; eat it" method, apparently without success.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Orrex
(63,213 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)call me a liar or stupid, you can become #5 on my ignore list. No big loss, you've always struck me as being pretty trollish.
toodles.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)MissB
(15,808 posts)So while you and I are only guessing, it does seem likely that the parents are trying everything. Heck, the dad apparently ate lunch with his kid at school every day last year.
It's an interesting medical mystery.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)And I've been a fan of lots of your posts, so please understand that I don't have a problem with you at all.
But I think most parents at some point have some problem with a kid and then they get advice to do the most obvious thing ever. I had a 2-year-old who kept bolting away from me, and who almost got out in traffic once, and I got advice like, "Well why don't you hold her hand?" and "Why don't you tell her to stay close?" 2-year-olds don't listen to "stay close" and they are little escape artists who can wriggle their tiny hands away. It felt really insulting to tell me to do something that seemed so obvious. Few things get a parent more annoyed than hearing something like that. I mean, if that worked there wouldn't have been a problem to discuss.
I imagine he read your response and remembered some situation where he received advice like that. It was my initial reaction to your post too, and if I hadn't remembered some really great posts you've put on DU, I might have snarked at you as well.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)it looks like something is left out of the story.
Avalux
(35,015 posts)The boy was ill, had pneumonia...maybe the illness affected him psychologically in some way. There is nothing wrong with his sense of taste and smell, and he isn't reporting any kind of adverse effects when he does eat. He just doesn't want to do so, even if he's telling his parents he does.
I hope they can figure out what's going on with him. I remember a story of an anorexic woman who lived for years with a feeding tube because she didn't have a desire to eat. I know he's a 12 year old boy, but it may be a similar case.
longship
(40,416 posts)Like the Breathairians aren't doing his work for him.
This guy needs serious help.
PADemD
(4,482 posts)It's the hunger hormone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghrelin
vanlassie
(5,670 posts)human milk for a time. Nothing to lose.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)I had one who refused to eat breakfast before school for a long time. She just wasn't hungry and found it difficult to eat after she woke up, but she couldn't go to school on an empty stomach. I did smoothies. It still wasn't easy to get her to drink but it was easier than getting her to eat. But it's very likely this family had tried liquid diets as well. It sounds like they're way past options like that. It seems like an early attempt would be Ensure or something.
Breast milk can be very expensive to get, but it is very nutrient-dense. I worry that it might be hard to convince a 12-year-old to drink it. Kids at that age can be ridiculously stubborn, as this kid shows - he's wasting away and still won't eat.
vanlassie
(5,670 posts)food and the only food that is completely natural to the human gut. I would want a restart. For healing. He can have it in the tube. No one has to tell him what it is.
malaise
(269,004 posts)He'll be eating in no time
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)s/he would be an instant billionaire selling it as a diet aid.