Anorexia Nervosa Signs and Symptoms
Behavioral signs that a child might be anorexic:
- Refusal to eat, or a rejection of a healthy amount of food
- Denial of hunger
- Skipping meals
- Weighing foods
- Eating only a few foods, usually those low in fat and calories
- Preoccupation with food–collecting recipes, watching food shows
- Cooking for others, but refusing to eat
- Rigid meal or eating habits
- Dramatic dieting
- Excessive exercise
- Repeated weighing of oneself
- Repeated checking in the mirror, or photographing body parts
- Wearing of baggy or layered clothing
- Complaints about being fat
- Gross overvaluing of shape and weight as components of her or his identity
- Flat mood
- Difficulty concentrating
Physical Symptoms include:
- Extreme weight loss
- Abnormal thinness
- Abnormal blood counts
- Fatigue
- Dizziness or fainting
- Brittle nails
- Hair that thins or falls out
- Soft, downy hair that covers the body
- Absence of or irregular menstruation
- Constipation
- Dry skin
- Intolerance of cold
- Irregular heart rhythms
- Low blood pressure
- Dehydration
- Osteoporosis
- Blue coloration of hands and feet
- Failure to keep up with normal growth and weight could be a sign of anorexia, though in growing children and adolescents what constitutes a normal weight is very difficult to ascertain
The defining characteristic of anorexia is body image distortion—what the child sees in the mirror as unacceptably fat is, to anyone else, disturbingly thin.