deathly underweight?

[bbigham]

I am a 26 year old female with 3 children. I have been underweight since I was 4 years old. I did gain weight with my first pregnancy but lost it all with in 2 weeks after having the baby. 42 lbs in 2 weeks to be exact. Then some time later a doc out me on a drug called megace. I gained weight on it but after about 4 months I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and had to have a complete hysterectomy. After the hyserectomy we tried hormone replacement with absolutely no success. After several differ drugs I was told that my body just wouldn't absorb the hormones. Now I am afraid I have osteoporosis and I already have scoliosis with a 38 degree curve and i'm afraid osteoporosis will make it worse. Right now I weigh 77 lbs at 5'4" tall. That puts my bmi at 13.2! I don't want to be skinny! I don't think i'm fat and I don't induce vomitting. My thyroid has been checked more times than I can count and always comes out fine. I just don't get hungry very much and it's veery difficult for me to eat when i'm not hungry without getting sick. When I am hungry I can't eat very much and I wonder if that has some thing to do with my inability to burp. The few times in my life that I have been able to burp it was immediately followed by throwing up. Stress makes it even harder for me to eat and i've been in an abusive marriage for 7 years now so that makes whatever my problem is worse. I think i'm starting to have malnutrition symptoms... My back teeth are crumbling and I think my thermo regulation is all screwed up. If I get really got outside I start running a fever if I get really cold my body temp drops. I'm always tired but I don't know if that's a symptom of my weight or maybe depression. I fall asleep anytime I sit still. I bruise very easily. And I can't remember a single time in my life that I haven't been anemic. It also seems like here lately my skin has been extremely sensitive. My wedding band is even making my finger dry and scaley and itchy. What's wrong with me? What do I do?

[Renee Radenberg]

Due to your weight, you are not able to eat large meals. Jello has very little calories and only fills you up with no benefit. Suggest you eat 5-6 meals a day, basically snack all day on high calorie foods with a protein source food at each meal/snack. That will help you digest better and have calories to gain weight. Recommend a multi-vitamin with iron to help give you vitamins/minerals your body needs. Hope that helps you.

[cdnskmom]

My heart goes out to you, it sounds like you are having a terrible time. My son is extremely underweight as well, to the point he appears malnourished. Tests have revealed low ApoB which causes poor protein use by the body and nutrient absorption. Some things we are doing seem to help, an egg every day, and vitamins... C, B3, B6, B12, D, E, folic acid and Omega 3's. That would get some necessary nutrients into you at least without having to deal with the calories at first. Once your body has had some vitamins for awhile you may likely find that you will start to be able to handle eating more calories. A probiotic supplement or yogurt with probiotics would be good too.

If you can handle fruit, try eating papaya or pineapple before eating meat, as the enzymes will help break down the protein and your body might not object as much.

I am currently reading "Diet & Nutrition, a Holistic Approach" by Rudolf Ballentine, M.D. and it has been very helpful to me.
Good luck, and all the best. Yvonne

[bbigham]

One other weird thing that I forgot to mention which may be of some importance... I have tried ensuresnd other calorie dense drinks but I realized about a year ago that the number of calories in what I take in plays a part in how much I can eat. For instance I can eat jello and a lot  of it!but if I eat pudding which has more calories I can't eat nearly as much without getting sick. I tried a powder one time that you add to your food and it adds like 300 calories or so. I added it to one cup of pudding and I could barely eat the the whole cup. It seems like it's not the amount I eat but how many calories it has. I know that sounds crazy but thought it might be helpful in answering my question. It seems like anything over 500 calories is the cut off.