Compulsive eating...

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Hi all,

My son is almost 15 and has had an ongoing issue for quite some time that we haven't been able to get a handle on, hopefully someone can offer some suggestions.

He sneaks food at night, this has been going on for about 11 - 12 years to varying degrees. He sneaks food he isn't supposed to have into his room at night and eats a TONNE of it, I have no idea how he isn't vomitting from it. It used to be just 'sweets' that he would pilfer and eat over time, cookies, school treats etc but then progressed to large amounts of icing, ice cream, cola etc. Two summers ago he started taking foods from the chest freezer in large quantities, I found 8 empty 2L ice cream containers and 36 empty 1L coke bottles in his room hidden under his bed! We stopped buying the stuff and assumed if he couldn't get it the behaviour would stop. He simply re-focussed and started taking other frozen foods - hash browns, perogies, bagels, chicken fingers etc and he would sit up just about all night defrosting them on his heater and eating them. Now he eats cereal by the boxful and eats cans of frozen juice concentrate, several at a time!

I used to make cakes for a living but finally gave up out of frustration when all my supplies kept going missing. He would never touch a completed cake but would frequently empty all the icing bins overnight before the caked were finished causing my jobs to take longer to get done and clients to get frustrated and upset. I quit when I couldn't get him to stop.

I have taken him in to have his blood sugars tested, he gets it tested regularly and it's fine. He is a normal weight for his age/size (5'9" @ 140 lbs). The doctors have been no help whatsoever with this aside from having a stern conversation with him every now and again, they suggested it was more of an OCD than AS behaviour but definately compulsive rather than an effort to purposely be 'bad'. He knows he is not supposed to do it but says he can't stop himself and it upsets him. It seems to be worse when there is more stress in the home, it has decreased quite dramatically since his father moved out last year.

We have tried all kinds of diets, including certain foods, excluding certain foods but none made a lick of difference. This has been going on since the first time I caught him standing ON the stove sneaking a candy bar from the top cupboard at three years old.

ANY insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea if anyone else has gone through this or is going through it but this has been going on for sooooooo long I may lose my marbles. It was a huge contributing factor to my marriage ending and I worry that we will never get this under control. Thank you.

OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and it is a specific disorder with specific manifestations. It does not apply to obsessive or compulsive behavior in general any general fashion and compulsive eating in the sense you describe, is not a symptom of it.

Your son should have a workup by an endocrinologist. You should also determine whether or not he might have something called Prader-Willi Syndrome. People with this disorder can have certain behavioral traits, and have an inability to feel full. They always feel hungry and will sneak and steal food to get it.

Thank you for the reply, Chronos.

My son has been seen by an endo and has his bloodwork including thyroid etc done 3 - 4 times a year. I have had them test for diabetes and things like that over the years to rule it out and everything has come back clean, the doctors say they can find no physical reason for the eating.

He has not been officially diagnosed with OCD yet, they have been monitoring the behaviours based on our journals and reporting for about 2 years now but say he has OCD tendencies for now. It was explained to me that the eating could be the 'compulsion' part of OCD as it is something he can't stop himself from doing even thought he knows he shouldn't be doing it, he feels compulsed to.

He has other OCD-like issues as well around hoarding (some with food, some with other items) and sexual obsessions. We are trying to deal with each on its own, the eating being the most severe and upsetting to the household so trying to tackle it first especially since it has been going on for so long.

I will look up the Prader-Willi to see if it fits and speak to his doctors about it. Without having read anything on it, I am not sure based on your description that it fits as it seems to happen only at night and he does not binge during the day at all, often claiming to be full at dinner time before finishing. He does eat quite a bit at breakfast and dinner and I feel he could be eating more throughout the day as he tends to pack a fairly light lunch and no snacks. I'm off to google Prader-Willi.......

My father and I are both compulsive eaters -- though perhaps to a lesser degree than your son -- and we also both have asperger's.

I go in phases. Like today I'm fine. I had breakfast seven hours ago and I'm still not hungry yet. Other days I will eat anything, even things that I know will make me feel ill later. I try to stay with a restricted diet because I have bad reactions to several different types of food. But since I don't live alone, I'm unable to keep those foods out of my house and so I do turn to them when I'm "starving" and have gone through all my groceries.

I never noticed if my father went through phases or compulsively ate steadily, but he is a night-eater like your son. Often, my father would claim he didn't even remember getting up at night and eating. I've watched my father eat a gallon of ice cream and practically swallow hard-boiled eggs whole and then go back to bed and the next morning get mad because "someone ate my ice cream!"

I don't know if the compulsive eating is related to being on the autism spectrum or not, but my father and I exhibit both traits so it might be. Neither of us has OCD.

Sorry I'm not more help -- I just wanted to let you know that someone else does experience what you're describing.

Unfortunately, OCD is not always used in the proper context even in those in the medical community.

The compulsions in those with OCD are, for the most part, fear based. They do what they do to rid themselves of strong feelings that, if they don't, something "bad" will happen.

For example. A person with OCD might worry that if they step on a crack, their mother will die. They know she won't, or at least that it's very very very improbably, but he brain acts as if she will, and causes them to focus on that minute chaos theory probability. Or, conversely, they may need to step on the crack some number of times to prevent this.

In some situations it's partially sensory driven. For example, if a person with OCD who is a handwasher and a counter, doesn't wash each hand for 4 seconds, the hand might not feel almost as if it actually has something on it. They may perceive an actual sensation of imbalance between their clean hand and the unclean one and this will persist until they wash each hand for the prescribed number of seconds, or they get sufficiently distracted.

They will usually feel that something is dirty much in the sense that you might feel a plate is dirty if you see a roach run across it, even if the roaches are medical grade and clean.

Their brain creates a "dirty" sensation.

The only reason someone with OCD would force themselves to eat something as a result of the OCD would be a fear that something bad would happen to someone, or themselves, if they didn't. Or, maybe they were afraid something they previously ate was infested with something and they have to eat something else to negate that infestation, or they get a fear that they did something that might cause them to get cancer, or some illness, and negate that by eating something, all the while knowing how illogical they are being.

More often than not though, if OCD manifests as a food issue, it's with the person NOT eating something. For example, not eating a piece of fruit because of fear it's infested with something or dirty in some way.




Hoarding is actually now thought to be distinct from actual OCD, though the two can overlap depending on the reason for the hoarding. A person with OCD who hoards does it for the same reasons a person with OCD might not step on a crack. A fear that throwing something away will result in something bad happening to themselves or someone else.

True hoarders will hoard for reasons beyond me, and a person with an eating disorder may hoard food because it's of some value to them or more complex reasons I assume.



What type of sexual obsessions?

People with OCD have intrusive thoughts. This is the "obsession part" and manifests as the cause of the compulsions described above, or may manifest in intrusive images or propositions, and these are usually of a sexual or violent nature and always found to be disturbing or a nuisance. They are entirely unwanted and the person derives no pleasure from them.

You say his weight is right for his age, despite all this eating. Is it not possible then that he is just hungry? He is afterall a growing man.

I have 2 brothers and the amount they ate as teenagers was phenomenal. They too wouldn't have thought anything of eating entire tubs of ice-cream in one go, or raiding the freezer.

If he is eating excessively (say 5000 calories per day) yet not gaining any extra weight, then that is a sign that he needs 5000 calories per day just to keep his body running. If he was getting fat then I could see the need to worry, but the fact that he isn't getting fat means that he is burning all the calories that he eats.

This could be due to a very inefficient digestive system (I.E. eats 5000 calorie, but only absorbs 2000 of it). Or this could be due to a very active life style. Does he move around a lot? 5000 Calories per day is actually pretty healthy if he is doing a lot of physical activities like sports, or whatever.

And if he has a compulsive need to eat, have you tried giving him something to eat? Making a huge bowl full of jello will provide him with lots of food to eat for pretty cheap. It is mostly water.

But yeah, if he isn't gaining any weight, then you don't need to worry about over eating.

i occasionally get like that but not quite to that extent if it isnt a medical problem (never feeling full) you should get him something else he can focus his OCD on video games normally do the trick well for me anyway lol good luck

If he is a normal weight for his height, I don't see the problem. If you're concerned the food he's stealing is unhealthy, then don't buy unhealthy food, keep the fridge stocked with good food that he doesn't need to feel guilty about. It seems very sad that he should be feeling guilt about eating, when it doesn't seem to be doing his health any harm.

Try to take the guilt out of the situation by not going on about it, and make sure the food is healthy. That should lessen his anxiety, which in turn should lessen his binges.

But it is just possible that he's a very hungry young man who needs the food. The eating patterns of youngsters growing can sometimes alarm their elders... but his metabolism is different.

Really, I don't see that there's a problem. Stock the fridge with good food, and relax about it. If he feels guilty he might develop a real eating disorder, like bulimia, or body dysmorphic disorder... you really don't want that.

My little boy who is almost 5 tends to want to eat all the time. He is not really hoarding or sneaking food, but his appetite was a concern to me for awhile. But then I realized that he probably was going through a growth spurt because he is not really getting fat either. Thank goodness my son loves fruit, so I just keep giving him lots of watermelon, oranges, grapes, apples, etc... Maybe he has oral sensory needs that need to be filled. What about popsicles? Those are really low calorie. Or what about chewing gum? Maybe if some of these needs get met through the day, he won't need to do it at night? As far as the hoarding, I am not sure about that.

As a side note, when my son was a baby and was a very delayed walker, we had a series of genetic testing run, and one of the tests was for Prader Willi, and he tested negative. It may be worth reading about though.

Maybe he just has a really high metabolism rate?

Wish I had definite answers for you! Good luck and sorry this has caused so much trouble for you.

Thank you for all the replies, definately lots of information to check out. Perhaps their suggestion of OCD was not quite right for my son's issues so I will certainly revisit it again with his doctors.

I understand what everyone is saying about it potentially being an age thing as he is a teenager, but this has been going on since he was 3 - 4 years old and it IS affecting him and our whole family. I was forced to give up my career and it played a huge role in the breakdown of mine and his father's marriage. It affects him too as he will stay up almost all night eating and gets very little sleep, when he gets into the sweet stuff he is absolutely miserable to be around and can barely function.

He does eat very well during the day, he loves his fruits and veg and eats balanced meals for the most part. He know he can always help himself to anything from the fridge UPSTAIRS however his tendency is to grab a bin of chocolate chips and plow through those as quickly as possible before even getting to the fridge.

We were told NOT to try to keep him out of the stuff he isn't supposed to have as he would just turn to taking something else. I stopped buying the regular stuff anyways and that is exactly what happened. Rather than eating all the cookies or ice cream we didn't have he would eat all the packets of hot chocolate powder or jello powder, he even ate an entire bag of icing sugar! When I locked those away he started getting into the frozen dinner foods and is now eating things that are downright unhealthy and dangerous to eat uncooked.

Again, he's been doing this since he was very young so I know it's not just a teen's appetite and I'm afraid he's going to make himself very ill eating uncooked foods. I have NEVER made him feel guilty about eating and I don't like the assumption that I must be making him feel guilty about it or causing an eating disorder. My fridge IS stocked with good food which he DOES eat, I do NOT make him feel guilty about it and he is NOT aware that it played a major role in our divorce. What I need is to hear from others in similar situations on how to handle it so I can make it better for him and take some of the strain off my family. I have not been able to get any help at all from the doctors or specialists on this for years and years and it's getting progressively worse so any suggestions would be great.

Thank you angelbear. I did read some on Prader-Willi last night and it didn't really seem like him at all but I will mention it at th enext dr. visit anyways. He has access to all of those things, popsicles, gum, sugarless candies etc and it seems to make no difference which is why this is all so frustrating.

wow, I wish I could help. I can't believe a pyschologist or psychiatrist has not been of more help to you in this.

Me too, angelbear. I realize my second last post seems a bit defensive, I don't mean for it to be, I am simply frustrated as the doctors and everyone I have talked to for years have simply written it off as unimportant, boys will be boys, and now with being a teenager it must simply be because that's how teenage boys eat.

I have watched him plow through two foot long subs at lunch and I equate THAT with a teenaged boy's appetite, however this is something entirely different. I've talked to him, the dr's have talked to him about why he feels he does it and his answers are all the same, he doesn't know why he takes the stuff, it isn't because he's hungry but the thought gets into his head and it doesn't go away until he takes something and finishes it even though he knows he shouldn't, then he feels bad about it afterwards.

Frustrating!

Blinking,

We are dealing with those behaviors as well. I wish I could hire someone to sit with my son overnight and keep us safe. He's tried to microwave food and started fires by accidentally putting in very long times then walking away and leaving the machine running. Like you, I've lost a job and a career to my son's behavior. I had to constantly leave work to deal with his melt downs and problematic behaviors at school. My son also hoards and hides food in his room which affects the whole family. We all love him very much but some of his behaviors put so much strain on the family I just don't know how we can keep him with us much longer.

My son is diagnosed as an Aspie with ADHD, Bi-Polar disorder (probably schizotypal), psychotic disorder-NOS, and we still don't really have a handle on what's going on with him or how to get some of this stuff to stop. Last year, in 6th grade he did really well and I thought things were coming together for him. This year things have totally come apart. There are no services or inpatient programs available to help him, and we are at our wits end knowing what to do with him. His Drs are supposed to meet this week to see if they can't dig up something to try that we haven't already tried, but it's not looking like there are any options.

I wish I had answers for you, if I did I'd probably have answers for me too. In the USA there isn't any kind of support for kids like mine. There are no group homes for this kind of problem, and no hospital programs in our region. The school has to figure out what to do with him during school hours until he's 18, but after that there's nothing at all. Meanwhile I'm embroiled in a battle over his brothers getting the services they need at school, and it's not going well at all.

At least I can tell you that I understand and feel your pain. You're not alone.

Kiley

One question I do have for you is: Does your son chew?
Mine does not. He crams massive amounts of food in his mouth and only chews enough to compact it so he can swallow it. When he was young he had a lot of choking issues, but now he can get wads of food down without chewing. Nothing we do phases him, he just keeps eating that way no matter what.

Someone brought up a question about how efficiently your son might be digesting his food so if he's eating 5000cal a day, he might be only getting 2,000cal. The amount my so eats isn't as constantly high as you describe but some days he will eat that much, and some days he'll eat more normally. When he binges it's astounding what he eats, but I don't think he's absorbing those calories because he's just cramming them down. He's not tall, like me, and he's a normal weight for his height.