Son has no appetite

[Kaitlyn]

My 14 year old son has absolutly no appetite he hasn't really eaten in a week starting to get worried. The most he ate all week was a few pieces of toast and a few French fries. He just says he isn't hungry he doesn't feel sick( well that's what he tells me who knows how he feels ) I'm just worried that he isn't getting any nutrients or anything (I know it only been a week but I worry about everything)

 

[my little penguin]

have you tried supplemental drinks-
our GI prescribe peptamen jr so when ds doesnt eat he has to drink those per docs orders.
it is complete nutrition and can be ordered directly from the company or your durable medical supply company.
you do not need a script.

 

[Eema23]

Could his electrolytes be off making him lose his appetite?

Not sure this is helpful but hearing my teen age daughter's story might be motivating for him. She barely ate for a week, mostly soup, ended up in the ER dehydrated.
They were so worried they started talking about a transfusion but didn't. She was diagnosed with C. diff along with her UC/Crohn's ( they aren't sure which yet) and severe malnutrition. She had lost 10 lbs in a month and she isn't very big to start with. She was admitted to the hospital, got Ensure through a nasal tube, and after several days had a PEG tube inserted. Overall the hospital stay was 10 days, at home she gets 4 cans of formula through the tube at night and eats as much as I can get her to eat during the day.

Keep an eye on your son's weight and make sure he doesn't lose too large a percentage of his total.

 

[CarolinAlaska]

My daughter was found to be zinc deficient, which they say affects appetite. Replacing the zinc helped a little, but she still doesn't have much appetite. Our saving grace is that she will drink enteric nutrition (Ensure Plus and Peptamen Junior). I'm going to be asking our doctor to prescribe something to increase her appetite.

 

[Sascot]

Hi, this must be very worrying for you. I would call the GI and ask what's the best thing to do. It would be a good idea to get some nutritional drinks for him which he could sip throughout the day. Sounds like you need some medical advice though if it goes on much longer. Good luck!

 

[Jmrogers4]

Sounds familiar. I battle this constantly. My son is also 14 and the nutritional drinks (Peptide, Pepatem jr) have been a lifesaver! All labs/scopes showed Jack in remission yet he was not gaining weight (because he never ate!). In February Jack's GI prescribed 8 nutritional drinks a day along with Periactin, a appetite enhancer. He went from 77lbs to 100 pounds in about 6 weeks and was eating. GI's theory was he had gone so long not eating on a subconscious level associated food with pain so quit eating that his body had gone into starvation mode and didn't think it needed many calories to survive and we needed to reset his system. The periactin worked for a while but I think the body becomes used to it and it no longer increases appetite. He still doesn't eat a lot but definitely more than he used to and along with a couple of the nutritional drinks he has been able to maintain between 96-98 lbs and is 5'1" now. We increase/decrease the drinks as needed based on how much he is eating otherwise and how much activity he is doing but try and keep a minimum calorie count at 2000 if he is being a slug and up it from there depending on activities, when he is heavily involved in sports and working out a lot every day we will up to near 3000.

 

[Kaitlyn]

Thanks he started eating a bit more still only eating toast and now Popsicles (at least it's something). I got him some nutritional drinks and he is drinking them. also called his GI today left a message so hopefully they call me back.