9 year old is barely eating and dangerously underweight
I am looking for resources for my 9 year girl old who is barely eating and dangerously underweight. Her BMI is around 12. This is out of the blue and has come on pretty quickly- no other health problems (we have seen family doctor) or traumas and no apparent body image problems that we know of. She is already seeing a children's therapist but I think we need some sort of eating disorder clinic or specialist- we are besides ourselves with worry. Most everywhere I look seems geared to the adolescent. Does anyone know how the programs at Stanford and UCSF Children's hospital compare? They say they treat kids but website mainly talks about teens. Any other places I should look? We are in the East Bay but will go where we need to.....we have a PPO. Thanks for any insight!
Parent Replies
I'm sorry for your understandable worry! We met with Michele Vivas about four years ago (without daughter present) when our daughter was about 7. She was eating very little, dipped just into the region of worry on her pediatric weight curve, and was starting to seem very tired in a way that concerned us. Michele was very helpful, had good insight and explanations, and had enough strategies to suggest at one visit that we managed to turn things around. The kid remains on the lean, lower end of the growth curve for weight, and remains fairly food-"selective", but is healthy and doing well. I don't know if she takes insurance, we paid out of pocket. www.michelevivas.com, her number is 510-595-9474 and her office is in Rockridge. Hope you get some good advice.