eating difficulties as an adult

[keepingmesane]

does anyone else have problems with food? i have always had difficulties eating to the point that my mum was accused of starving me as a baby, i would eat only weetabix for 6 months. my mum has always been pretty good about it and in general gave me foods she knew i would eat. as ive grown up it hasnt gone away. its like having pregnancy craving permanently which can last for a short while or for years. after having my twins all i wanted to eat was scotch pancakes but they had to be particular ones from a particular shop, this went on for 2 years! and when i couldnt get the pancakes i would be in a foul mood. i could eat some other meals but only if i felt i could tolerate it. if i try to eat something i dont want or am not fond of i get really nauseous and can be sick if i dont stop eating when i start feeling bad. i have a really bland palate which makes it difficult to go out to eat anywhere, my husband is embaressed by me at some of the things i eat

 

since having children it has gotten quite bad and i have eaten very little for nearly 10 months now. all i could eat for some time was toasted pitta breads, and maybe jaffa cakes and pistachio nuts.

i dont really get hungry and forget to eat or drink. i used to be able to eat a lot of convenience foods so i didnt have to wait too long for the food as the longer it takes the more unlikely i am to eat it, smells and looks during cooking really put me off, but i have gone off all that type of food now.

 

i cant do anything about it, ive never been able to get over it. yes i can force myself to eat but then i am left for ages feeling so sick that it means i can do very little afterwards and i hate feeling like that, i dont see why eating should be such an unpleasant experience.

 

has anyone felt like this? everyone who meets me say i should do this or do that to cure me but they dont understand what its like to be me. when i was at school the docs tried to tell me that i was anorexic and that i was worried about how i looked! i never agreed with that. i just didnt like going in for dinners as i was always made an example of becuase i would never clear the whole dinner and pudding, if sent with packed lunches i just didnt like how packed the halls were so i pretended to go home for lunch and hid outside til everyone came out.

 

im feeling frustrated at the moment as ive run out of 'my' foods, cant get out to get any so cant really eat anything. im annoyed as to why i am like this, makes life so bloomin difficult

[jb1964]

Hi Deb,

 

Only a quick reply (my coffee break at work) - yes my daughters' 13 and always had problems with food and drinking since a baby - plus awareness of knowing hunger, thirst - or going to the toilet - can't distinguish certain pains or feelings etc - she also will not sit in the school canteen and has problems eating with other people, and also has suffered with swallowing problems etc. The Paed. also thought she was anorexic and that was why he referred her to CAHMS (which then started the process of diagnosis).

 

There's quite a lot of threads regarding this - I think it goes hand in hand with ASD (unfortunately).

 

Take care,

Jb

Edited May 8, 2007 by jb1964

[keepingmesane]

Thanks Jb

 

i hear a lot about teens and children being the same but never met an adult who is like it. when i mention it i am given the feeling that im supposed to have grown out of it

[barefoot wend]

keepingmesane

 

I think there are probably more people than you think who are similar. There was a programme on TV recently (I think it was called fussy eaters) and there were quite a few. I missed most of them but it was a releif to catch one where a guy only ate crisps and cheddar cheese.

 

I can also understand the only certain brands angle. My 14yr old son (NT) will only eat canadian cheddar from Tesco, one chicken product from Sainsbury's, raspberry jelly, Tropicana smooth orange, a certain length of bread baton that I can get from our local baker, even certain brands of bottled water (and he really can taste the difference). Like you he will also suddenly 'go off' a food for no particular reason even though he's been eating it every day for about a year (Marmite on toast without butter being a particular example).

 

It can make going on holiday a nightmare.

 

Mind you watching the programme last night about a set of 35 year old twins where every meal was a complete battleground made me feel positively lucky.

 

I hope you find something you like.

 

Barefoot

 

P.S. I was a fussy eater as a child and am still very fussy about certain foods - I have been eating Alpen for breakfast for about 20 years and could't possibly consider anything else.

[Bullet]

I'm pretty much the opposite of fussy with regard to food, I'll mix up loads of different combinations (eg bananas and mustard) just to see what they taste like. I eat very slowly and don't like eating in crowded places or in open, public areas and I often forget to eat as my body doesn't feel hungry a lot of the time, but when I do eat I'm very versatile.

Edited May 8, 2007 by Bullet

[Noetic]

It is quite common it seems. I am not exactly skinny and do eat perhaps a bit more than enough (although I am at near as damn my ideal weight), but I have a relatively restricted range of things and types of meals that I can both prepare and enjoy at any given time. At the moment and since about March it's been rice crackers with egg mayo for breakfast, spicy soups in cans for lunch and stir fry vegetables with rice or rice noodles for dinner, with the odd rice-based or sometimes chocolate-based snack, plus an apple a day and sometimes cubes of fresh fruit. It's healthy at least.

[MichelleW]

the more I'm reading things, the more I'm starting to wonder if I am AS! I was considered a fussy eater as a child, and i was under weight. My mum would force me to eat things which I can still remember nearly 30 years later. I still hate pork! I seem to be obsessed with food sometimes. i went through a phase of only eating spicy vegatable soup, or baked beans on toast! I had to stop eating chicken, though I can't understand why as I've eaten it all my life without a problem. I've had to stop eating white bread and pasta as it was making me ill - but I can eat biscuits or cake. And for the past 2 days I have gone through about a kilo of cherries - I just can't stop eating them! I actually went shopping today just to get another bag of cherries! If I didn't know better I'd suspect I was expecting again!

[elun1]

Hi

I'm also 'strange' with food! At the moment I'm not too bad but sometimes when stress really takes over I eat almost nothing - maybe a banana or two a day. Anything with fat in I can't touch. Just the thought of food can be too much to bear. The year before last I had to make excuses to get out of our staff xmas dinner as I knew i'd never even manage a starter let alone a whole dinner. Managed to start eating again gradually and am ok at the moment but although I'm 9st and 5 feet 5 I do feel fat so have to be careful not to get like that again.

Funny though, even at my worst time I could always manage wine!!

Elun xxx

[Cariad]

This post has really opened my eyes. I can't eat rice or pasta as it makes me feel ill and headachy. Also all my meals have to have helmans reduced mayo with it (savoury). Also i have to have one carb two veg meals. If i'm being naughty it is only baked potatoes and chocolate for afters. Am i weird?