OMEN
05-14-2010, 09:30 PM
A 12-year-old boy who became anorexic after being bullied about his weight has told how he starved himself to under five stone and nearly died.
Taylor Kirkham became obsessed with losing weight and limited himself to just 50 calories A DAY.
He became so ill that he was admitted to hospital and had to be tube fed. He was put on suicicde watch and lost circulation in his fingers and toes after refusing all food and drink.
The youngster, from Stockport, remembers days when he would eat half a diet yoghurt for breakfast, half a cherry tomato for lunch and refuse dinner.
Now Taylor, who is recovering well, has told of his nightmare obsession.
His problems started when he was 11 after he began at secondary school secondary school and older children called him names and teased him about his weight.
It quickly spiralled out of control as he rapidly lost weight and became obsessed with food.
Eventually he collapsed at school and was admitted to Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.
He was then transferred to a specialist unit run by the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where staff helped him on the road to recovery.
He now weighs a healthy seven-and-a-half stone.
Taylor, from Davenport, said: “I was not fat but I was a bit chubby, other children made comments and I wanted to be healthier, I wanted to lose weight.
“It started with watching TV, seeing programmes about healthy eating and then I started to look up calories in recipe books and on the computer.”
Taylor, who weighed around eight stone when he started dieting, described how he would eat no more than 1,500 calories a day but he gradually reduced this until he restricted himself to 50.
As his obsession took hold, he would watch what his mum cooked assessing every meal.
Soon he was hiding food, throwing it away and refusing to eat. He lost two stone in four months and was determined to lose more.
His desperate parents took down mirrors, removed the batteries from their weighing scales and battled with him to eat.
They tried to get professional help but things came to a head when they forced him to eat a biscuit and he became hysterical, threatening to commit suicide.
By last June he had started to hallucinate and became convinced he was getting calories from smelling other people’s food and even perfume.
During his treatment, he spent four weeks at Stepping Hill where he had to use a wheelchair to get around but put on a few pounds thanks to tube feeding.
Staff had to monitor his heart rate every hour and someone stayed with him 24 hours a day to watch he did not harm himself.
He then spent six months on a ward under the care of the CAMHS team at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital's Harrington Building on Oxford Road.
A dietician, psycholinguistic and nurses worked with him to get him eating healthier again and he is now recovering well.
Manchester Evening News.
Taylor Kirkham became obsessed with losing weight and limited himself to just 50 calories A DAY.
He became so ill that he was admitted to hospital and had to be tube fed. He was put on suicicde watch and lost circulation in his fingers and toes after refusing all food and drink.
The youngster, from Stockport, remembers days when he would eat half a diet yoghurt for breakfast, half a cherry tomato for lunch and refuse dinner.
Now Taylor, who is recovering well, has told of his nightmare obsession.
His problems started when he was 11 after he began at secondary school secondary school and older children called him names and teased him about his weight.
It quickly spiralled out of control as he rapidly lost weight and became obsessed with food.
Eventually he collapsed at school and was admitted to Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.
He was then transferred to a specialist unit run by the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where staff helped him on the road to recovery.
He now weighs a healthy seven-and-a-half stone.
Taylor, from Davenport, said: “I was not fat but I was a bit chubby, other children made comments and I wanted to be healthier, I wanted to lose weight.
“It started with watching TV, seeing programmes about healthy eating and then I started to look up calories in recipe books and on the computer.”
Taylor, who weighed around eight stone when he started dieting, described how he would eat no more than 1,500 calories a day but he gradually reduced this until he restricted himself to 50.
As his obsession took hold, he would watch what his mum cooked assessing every meal.
Soon he was hiding food, throwing it away and refusing to eat. He lost two stone in four months and was determined to lose more.
His desperate parents took down mirrors, removed the batteries from their weighing scales and battled with him to eat.
They tried to get professional help but things came to a head when they forced him to eat a biscuit and he became hysterical, threatening to commit suicide.
By last June he had started to hallucinate and became convinced he was getting calories from smelling other people’s food and even perfume.
During his treatment, he spent four weeks at Stepping Hill where he had to use a wheelchair to get around but put on a few pounds thanks to tube feeding.
Staff had to monitor his heart rate every hour and someone stayed with him 24 hours a day to watch he did not harm himself.
He then spent six months on a ward under the care of the CAMHS team at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital's Harrington Building on Oxford Road.
A dietician, psycholinguistic and nurses worked with him to get him eating healthier again and he is now recovering well.
Manchester Evening News.