Advice re weekly weigh in

[joanna21]

Hello,my daughter has just been discharged as in patient after 8 months.She is now at safe weight but still has all all the mental health issues.

Her recovery now continues at home and she is now under the local CAMHS , who I did not find that great before my daughter had to be admitted.

Last night my daughter would not eat her dinner.She was very low in mood but I am not sure what had caused it.

Today was the second week that I weighed her since discharge.Last week she had lost 1kg and I was sure she was going to have lost again but the scales showed an increase of 1.5kg and this is the most she has been since this all started last year. I could tell she was surprised too as she got off and then back on again.When I took breakfast in to her she asked if she could go to the toilet again and be weighed again - it was obviously important to her to see a lower number.I said maybe tomorrow and tried to explain how weight can fluctuate.She then refused her toast and would only drink her juice.

I have thought before that these weekly weigh ins have a very negative impact on her but I do know that she has said before she needs to know her weight and also CAMHS have said I must do it.But as a mum my gut instinct is to stop weighing her or perhaps just once a month.I wondered what anyone else thinks. I want to do all I can to prevent a relapse and her ending up back in hospital. Unfortunately she won't engage with any counsellors so the mental side of things are not being addressed which of course prevents recovery.

Any help , suggestions welcomed.

Thank you

[susiecoo]

Hi, as a mum who is shortly to face a similar situation (our daughter is to be discharged as an inpatient in two weeks time) my heart goes out to you. However, I do agree that weighing weekly is important, as our daughter had a relapse which resulted in her readmission precisely because she was managing to 'cheat' on her weighings and was actually losing weight at a far faster rate than we realised.

The counselling is another issue - our daughter is now engaging with therapy (about 18 months after first diagnosis) but so far with limited success in tackling the anorexic mindset. Keeping up the food intake seems to be key so that the brain can 'heal', so you will need to find the strength to be firm with your daughter about eating. Above all, take care of yourself too. If you want to chat further, you can PM me (I think).

Good luck!

[joanna21 in reply to susiecoo]

Thank you for your reply.

I am not sure how PM works so will have to ask my husband to help me find out ( sorry I am not great at computer stuff!)

Would be good to maybe try and swap tips on things that work !

I wish you all the best with your daughters discharge xx