Stomach Issues & Nausea / Question
Published: January 12, 2009
Dear TeenHealthFX,
I'm a 13 year old girl, am 5.8 inches tall and weigh 125.5 pounds. At school, for lunch, all I have to eat is usually a few grapes (6-10) and sometimes a small PB&J. (And water too) All of my friends eat way more than me and it is not because I want to loose weight. (I like my weight) I just don't feel hungry anymore. I barely eat anything at dinner and whenever I do, I eat less the next day for lunch. I don't eat breakfast at ALL because my grade has lunch at 11:05. In the past 4 weeks, I have lost about 3 pounds, and am beginning to wonder if I should be concerned about not feeling hungry . Please help me! Signed Not Hungry
Signed: Not Hungry
Dear Not Hungry,
If you are not intentionally restricting your diet (such as with an eating disorder like Anorexia Nervosa), but are suddenly losing your appetite and subsequently losing weight, there may be some underlying medical or mental health issue that needs to be addressed. Some causes of sudden appetite loss can include depression, grief reactions, mononucleosis, hyperthyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease, and constipation, to name a few. However, to get an accurate assessment of the situation it is important that you meet with a medical health professional. TeenHealthFX recommends that you see your primary care physician or an adolescent medical doctor as soon as possible so that he/she can determine what is contributing to your weight loss and provide whatever treatment might be needed so that your appetite returns to normal and so that you are able to maintain your weight at a healthy level.
If you don't have a doctor and live in northern
Signed: TeenHealthFX
7-10% of college students will drop out of school because of credit problems.
