Boy's Skin Turns Orange After Only Eating Baby Food Until Age 9. Now in Recovery
I’d wager that most of us have an issue or two when it comes to food. Worries about body image and peculiar preferences often conspire to keep us from getting the best nutrition in properly portioned amounts.
For myself, when cravings come calling, I’ll cop to a love for chips and chocolate and dislike of nourishing options such as apples or carrot sticks. But most of us manage to control our quirks and keep ourselves more or less healthy.
That isn’t true for some, though. Think about the celebrities who have gotten themselves in trouble with disordered eating.
In 2007, “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson admitted to struggling with bulimia for years. She told CosmoGirl that she thought weight loss would help boost her career.
“One of my guy friends caught on to it, and I just felt so ashamed and embarrassed,” she said. “I literally went cold turkey and snapped out of it.”
For Susan Dey, solving her disordered eating wasn’t so simple. “The Partridge Family” star found fame at the tender age of 17.
The ingenue got her career-defining role when super-slim fashion was in vogue. So Dey decided to see if she could imitate the waifish look of Twiggy (aka Lesley Lawson).
She dropped to a skeletal 92 pounds by restricting her diet largely to carrots, which had the unfortunate side effect of turning her fingers orange. Only when actor Danny Bonaduce reacted with revulsion when she showed up on set in a swimsuit did Dey realize her life needed to change.
Eleven-year-old Harry Smith ran into almost as serious dietary trouble. Like many young children, he was a picky eater.
However, his pickiness soon blossomed into something downright dangerous. “He was eating as many as 12 jars of baby food a day and wouldn’t eat anything else,” his mother, Angela, said.
“When he turned one and still wouldn’t try any new foods, I started getting concerned. As the years went on, health professionals tried labeling it as fussy eating and told me he’d grow out of it.”
Only he didn’t, and Angela began to suspect that her son may have a more serious condition. When Harry’s skin began to turn orange from all the baby food, she knew she had to act.
Around that time, she discovered the website of a psychologist named Felix Economakis, and she realized that her then-9-year-old son had the characteristics of someone suffering from a food phobia.
Indeed, Harry was so terrified of trying new grub that she could hardly get him to the initial appointment with Economakis. But from the first session on, Harry responded dramatically.
“Seeing him eat solids for the first time in nine years was amazing,” she said. “There were so many emotions I was feeling.
“Over the months, Harry’s food range improved. Today he is able to go anywhere without the need for baby food.”
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