Signs pointing to anorexia

What to look out for?

Anorexic boys and girls display similar physical and psychological changes as their illness starts to take hold, although boys are more likely to be concerned with their athleticism, whilst girls are much more concerned with their basic body image. One of the key difficulties in diagnosing anorexia in boys is that lots of boys go through extremely skinny phases whilst maintaining a healthy appetite. If you suspect that your son is suffering from an eating disorder, it is an invaluable exercise to note down any changes to his behaviour however small they might seem at the time. As the weeks go past you may well forget that he didn’t used to have some of these funny habits. The second key difficulty is that many of the changes in behaviour could easily be caused by the onset of puberty. However as the list starts to grow you will soon sense that something else is having a profound effect on your son. These are some of the things to look out for:

Has your son lost weight or failed to gain weight for some time?
Is your son exercising more than he used to?
Have you noticed that he is eating less?
Can you find out if he is eating less at school?
Have you noticed your son excluding certain types of food?
Is your son playing with his food, or cutting it up into tiny pieces?
Has your son developed any other rituals around eating?
Does your son comment on other peoples’ shapes and sizes?
Does your son encourage those around him to eat, whilst eating very little himself?
Has your son suddenly become more attentive to his personal hygiene?
Has your son suddenly become much more neat and tidy?
Has your son become more concerned about his schoolwork and/or his position in read more