[Lost Dog]

It's actually for the parents, of course.

My friends have a 12 year old son. He's about 170 and not very tall. They have another son (16 years old ) who's very fit, btw. The dad is very, very fit and athletic. The mom isn't fat.

They claim that they have very little in the way of non-healthy snacks around the house. Fruit, veggies, nuts, etc. They don't even have crackers around the house. They are the family where the kids' friends don't like to go, because they got no treats.

From what they describe, the kids not eating ANYTHING hardly. He is pretty sedentary, but still eats very little (so they think). Obviously, the kid could be sneaking things, but it would have to be outside foods. He's homeschooled, too, so it's not cafeteria or vending machines.

On a week long camp, the counselor told the parents that he needs to see a doctor. That something must be wrong for him to eat so little and weigh so much. His diet had been watched closely all week. There were treats, but he hardly ate them, either.

They took him to a doctor, who claimed the kid was allergic to everything (except kamut). I find that hard to believe. They also took him to some sort of homeopathic dude who said basically the same thing (only he didn't use the term "allergies," he used "intolerances.).

At one point, the family (16 year old excluded) got on the Atkins diet for a while. The boy dropped 15lbs pretty quickly. I don't know why they stopped.

My friends say that he often seems down and sad. Depressed? This is how I was as a 12 year old. However, I clearly ate too much. I was very sneaky.

They asked me for advice, and I can't really give them too much. I'm not qualified to dole out advice on someone's child. I'm hoping that there's a resource I can point them to.

I'm not going to workshop this here, but I wanted to share enough background so that someone might have an idea of where I can send them.

Thanks,

Roland