When my daughter was little she had issues with aspiration. We were lucky enough to avoid the g-tube with thickened pediasure. We did feeding therapy after treating her reflux, including "forcing" her to take bites of foods when she refused. This took a significant amount of effort, and she would throw tantrums at, before and after the sessions. She would only eat something other than pediasure during therapy with a lot of pressure. We ended feeding therapy at age 11. She's now 14 and her diet is still exclusively pediasure. We had her 14th birthday party at our house with no cake because she won't eat it. We had games and treats for the guests. She won't eat at school, at birthday parties, even when encouraged. The only time she had a normal diet is when we went on vacation last week. She ate everything from tilapia, soup, cake, salad, pizza, etc. Our vacation is for a week. When we got back I offered her the same foods and she refused. I have tried just taking away her pediasure (which I have to remind her to drink) and she will just starve herself. I wasn't sure if this was normal rebellion or an eating disorder. I googled teens and eating disorders and most of what I read talked about anorexia and bulimia the desire to be thin. My daughter does not fit these descriptions. I posted on another and someone mentioned ARFID. I googled this acronym and it described my daughter. I googled teens and AFRID I found out that it's not all that uncommon. I am very mad that ARFID wasn't mentioned in my google searches. Why do people talk about wanting to be thin but not this? This is also an eating disorder. Someone on the forum said I have to go to the kartini clinic in Oregon for the best care, as professionals have very little idea on how to treat entrenched ARFID. I read on one site 63% of pediatricians and pediatric specialists don't know about ARFID. I am furious. So maybe that's why it's not discussed.

Another thing is getting my husband on board. My husband doesn't believe in mental illness. For example, one of his relatives was in a manic episode. She quit her job thinking she will be very famous. My husband insisted her parents needed to kick her out and she will learn being on the street. I explained she's bipolar but he refused to accept this. Then when she was hospitalized and started taking medication my husband said she was fine before being hospitalized. He will also tell depressed people to go out more, because that's what he does when he's "depressed." When I told him out daughter has ARFID he said he told our daughter to eat regular food many times and she doesn't listen. I said you can't talk someone out of an eating disorder. We had an argument where he said I was just making excuses for her.

I also learned over the years you can't trust professionals. No one brought up ARFID. Maybe if I just googled eating disorders and not teens and eating disorders I would have discovered this sooner. Heck many articles on eating disorders don't even mention ARFID. Why? This makes me so angry. Why do some eating disorders get attention and not others? I am not even sure how to get her help. I am in the DC area and I heard Johns Hopkins treats eating disorders.