Eating

My daughter who is now 20 has a problem with eating. She is very thin and has always been, finds it difficult to eat. Even when she is hungry she cannot eats much. Everytime she has to push food down her stomach and she is also becoming to worry that she is going to get thinner and thinner. What can she do so that she can eat better?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
To get a realistic view—log in what your daughter eat. Keep a diary. Log in each food item she takes, time at which she ate, purging if any or forced vomiting, laxative if any that she took etc. Basically a diary of what she ate—food, medicines etc, exercises she did—duration type of exercise etc. Consult a psychologist and nutrition expert with a diary of week-10 days. Your daughter could be having an eating disorder. Also it is possible that she has a bad gastric ulcer which makes it painful for her to eat or has killed her appetite.
Loss of appetite can also be due to certain medications, drug abuse, depression, AIDS, acute and chronic infections, cancers and hypothyroidism.  
Please consult your PCP for primary examination followed by proper referral.
Take care!