Male anorexia

My 10 yr old nephew twisted his ankle in a hole and broke it. The doctor was concerned that it broke so easily. They weighed him and found he was SERIOUSLY underweight. He is only in grade school. We have always just considered him a picky eater. But when I saw him at xmas I was shocked. You could see his spine.

Isn't anorexia becoming more common in boys? In grade schoolers?

It may not be anorexia nervosa, but an inability to digest foods (making him want to avoid them) or the inability to absorb nutrients. There may be a problem with receiving hunger stimuli to the brain. Anorexia Nervosa is rare in boys, so you'd be doing him a service by getting it checked out. A short term boost would be a mixture of carb and protein shakes used by boxers and gym enthusiasts. If it still doesn't improve see a doctor about it. He could even be anaemic or something unrelated.

When I want to put on weight fast, I eat loads of pancakes..fat, protein and carbs - but use unsaturated fat as eggs are not just high in protein, but in cholesterol too.

@ Orleander
Yes it is becoming more common.
Yes it's serious when it occurs.
Yes it's hard to treat...
And inadequate nutrition is very bad for brain health.

Keep in mind, even if I were a pro (I'm not), I couldn't diagnose over the internet.

And he needs to get a full physical workup to eliminate physical cause as the culprit...

Anorexia Nervosa is often a sign of serious underlying issues...some of it is appearance-related in some people...but I think the most common motivation is feeling out of control.

I'm basically wondering what might be causing this?
Not that there has to be something? but there usually is something that's really made the child feel incredibly out-of-control...so guess what he can control? What he puts in his mouth, or does not.

What are his parents doing about this?

Chimpkin is right. He needs to have a full evaluation to rule out any other causes. Are his parents aware of this and doing anything about it?

the doctor told them to give him vitamins and those shakes they give to old people in nursing homes.
My Mom told them to start paying more attention to him (he's the middle of 5 boys)

I hope the little guy is all right. I used to work with teenagers. I saw anorexia only a couple of times in boys, But I saw it a lot in the girls. Sometimes it got reeeeaaaaal bad. One girl almost died once while she was in the facility where I worked, and we literally had to send her to the hospital about once a week. It's a horrible disease.

Isn't it a mental illness? Is mental illness a disease?
Oh, and I think the boy is gay. My family is in denial. Gotta love religion

Orleander said:

Isn't it a mental illness? Is mental illness a disease?
Oh, and I think the boy is gay. My family is in denial. Gotta love religion

Click to expand...

Yes rafting disorders are mental health issues. If you look at the other thread where I posted those 3 questions I didn't pull them out of my ass, other people may word them differently but the concept is the same, distress, functioning, danger to self or others.

Furthermore I belive eatting disorders are listed in both the DSM-IV and the IDC (not 100% sure on the IDC because I haven't read it is as much as the DSM)

As for previlance, I belive the current ration is 1/3 boys to girls but that includes ALL the rafting disorders including gym adiction

Haven't herd if gay children are more or less suseptible but they ARE 6 times more likely to suffer a mental illness, especially if friends and family reject there sexuality

On a personal note I have a fiend in a similar situation, we have known he was gay since he and PB were in high school but his family are religious and can't accept him for who he is. He suffers anxiety and depression, has had the oposite kind of eatting disorders (over eatting) , he can't stay at anyone's house (for instance at Christmas we said we had free booze I paid for and a proper bed, stay here and go Home tomorrow but he can't). He has also been alone his whole life, he has only been on 1 date and that didn't work out so he's alone and we worry about him

Isn't it a mental illness? Is mental illness a disease?
Oh, and I think the boy is gay. My family is in denial. Gotta love religion

Click to expand...

Trying to be more clear this time... if it's anorexia, he's starving himself to fulfill a psychological need.

Because it's a dysfunctional coping mechanism...it tends to take over...for whatever reason, dysfunctional coping methods just seem to do that. They're addictive. They start substituting for more and more things that the person isn't getting.

Gay males are more likely to be anorexics than heterosexual males...although my friend who beat it is a straight guy.

I take it that "Gays are going to hell!" or some such at their house?
Not liking this.

chimpkin said:

T...I take it that "Gays are going to hell!" or some such at their house?
Not liking this.

Click to expand...

They don't think homosexuals go to hell. But they also don't think you are born gay. So they are continually trying to 'toughen him up'. Its just not who he is.

I'm hoping this is a wake-up call for them as parents. I don't know why the doctor just suggested vitamins and protein drinks and not counseling. Its like giving someone pain meds for a brain tumour, but doing nothing about the tumour. <sigh>

Orleander said:

They don't think homosexuals go to hell. But they also don't think you are born gay. So they are continually trying to 'toughen him up'. Its just not who he is.

I'm hoping this is a wake-up call for them as parents. I don't know why the doctor just suggested vitamins and protein drinks and not counseling. Its like giving someone pain meds for a brain tumour, but doing nothing about the tumour. <sigh>

Click to expand...

From what I know of the treatments for anorexia the treatment is a lot more than just counciling. There is a dedicated unit at flinders hospital to deal with eating disorders both in hospital and as out patients

Orleander said:

They don't think homosexuals go to hell. But they also don't think you are born gay. So they are continually trying to 'toughen him up'. Its just not who he is.

I'm hoping this is a wake-up call for them as parents. I don't know why the doctor just suggested vitamins and protein drinks and not counseling. Its like giving someone pain meds for a brain tumour, but doing nothing about the tumour. <sigh>

Click to expand...

what does being "tough" have to do with being gay?

nothing. that was a rhetorical question.

why can't people just let other people be who they are without trying to "toughen" them up, or label them? he's 10 years old ffs.

and he is only 10, so I could be incredibly wrong about him being gay. Maybe he just stands out more because he is so incredibly different from his rough and tumble brothers. My son was the same way...not rough and tumble, but more of a sensitive soul. But dang, he's just so feminine.

Orleander said:

and he is only 10, so I could be incredibly wrong about him being gay. Maybe he just stands out more because he is so incredibly different from his rough and tumble brothers. My son was the same way...not rough and tumble, but more of a sensitive soul. But dang, he's just so feminine.

Click to expand...

my brother was kind of the same way. not feminine, but a sensitive momma's boy, not an athlete; he's an artist, a musician.

does masculinity and femininity really relate to sexuality? doesn't that relate more to gender? i don't know; i'm asking. and what's to be said about conditioning when we're saddling children with sexualities from the moment their born? i mean, even the difference between how we raise boys and girls, why? i know there are stereotypical differences between boys and girls in a general sense, but everybody's different. why can't we celebrate that? why do we feel the need to pigeon hole people into certain roles or agendas? it seems like some kind of fear or ego based thing to me, i guess. why does a 10 year old need to worry about what they're going to be doing with their genitals when they're 20 or whenever? their headed into a time when they'd probably rub them against anything that moves. that's puberty not sexuality.

it seems like regardless of whether it's articulated or not, this kid is probably aware that "there's something wrong with him", when really, there's nothing wrong with him. it's just a shame.

and religious people aren't the only people who do this to kids either. kids do it to each other. i'm sure the words "fag" and "lesbo" and worse are thrown around on playgrounds a lot, and of course they get those words from adults, whether it's their parents or the media. sexuality isn't a good topic for me. i just wish people could be individuals, and didn't have to be so categoried, for whatever reason. i mean, it can be nice to have things in common with some people, but it's not really nice to have somebody, or everybody, come up and stamp you on the forehead.

i agree 100%, I mean seriously, PB and i were talking about what we needed to do before we have kids and she wants to wait till we know what gender baby we are having before we can paint its room blue or pink. What crap, just paint it blood red and be done with it

Orleander said:

and he is only 10

Click to expand...

Too young to even consider possible anorexia or being gay IMO.

Personally I was skin and bones as a child and skinny through high school. I wore suspenders all through my elementary years just to keep my slim pants from falling off. My high school weight at time of graduation was 110 lbs.

I was a picky eater, rarely ate much food, but drank lots of milk. From what I can recall from my early years, most foods were simply unappealing to me. That, and I was generally uninspired to eat anything because eating was more of a chore, and took away from things I truly valued like playtime.

Agree with Lori_7 - there's really nothing wrong with him.

Probably more a question of nutrition than anything else. Does he eat the institution provided meals, or ones provided from home? You say he has to compete with several brothers for food?

does masculinity and femininity really relate to sexuality? doesn't that relate more to gender?

Click to expand...

Umm...urr...ahg...this is the sort of stuff you can't get grants on...The current PC line is that they are unrelated.

But my personal and uneducated observation is that gender and sexuality are loosely interrelated. But only loosely.

There are plenty of nelly straight guys and manly hetero women....

See, I noted with interest that a longitudinal study on transitioning Male-to-Female transsexuals...That before transition, 75% were attracted to women. Post-transition, 25% still were...and that's quite a bit different than cisgendered women.

I also note that I seem to run across a lot of gay, femme, transmen online. I have a friend who's an MtF butch dyke.

Androgyne/genderqueer people are even more fun-they seem to have a slight tendency to be either pansexual...or asexual.

Neutrois people, same thing.

Again, gotta eliminate a physical cause before you say it's a psychiatric one.

Orleander said:

Isn't it a mental illness? Is mental illness a disease?

Click to expand...

Anorexia nervosa--deliberately skipping meals or undereating--is a mental illness, but not all anorexia is anorexia nervosa. Some people are easily nauseated, or have a digestive disorder, or have some other reason why they literally can't eat enough

spanglo said:

Too young to even consider possible anorexia or being gay IMO.

Click to expand...

You'd be wrong - in the first instance at least.

spanglo said:

Personally I was skin and bones as a child and skinny through high school. I wore suspenders all through my elementary years just to keep my slim pants from falling off. My high school weight at time of graduation was 110 lbs.

I was a picky eater, rarely ate much food, but drank lots of milk. From what I can recall from my early years, most foods were simply unappealing to me. That, and I was generally uninspired to eat anything because eating was more of a chore, and took away from things I truly valued like playtime.

Agree with Lori_7 - there's really nothing wrong with him.

Click to expand...

Anorexia is about more than fussy eating an being thin.