I gave my children the freedom I didn’t have. Then my daughter developed an eating disorder

Titles have been altered.

SINGAPORE: Ivy * picked her daughter up from school on the final day before the June break because she assumed they were going to a family lunch.

Instead, they quickly arrived at the KK Women and Children’s Hospital( KKH ). Ivy told her child, Sophie,” I’m sorry.” ” You need to go to the hospital because you’re not getting better.”

A year after Sophie was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by a severe fear of gaining pounds and an unhealthy addiction with practice, it was Sophie’s parents’ next destination.

She had been receiving family-based therapy, in which kids are in charge of monitoring their child’s diet until they reach a healthier pounds. Ivy and Sophie had to create a deal as part of this, with the aid of sane counsel, requiring Sophie to meet weight goals for each clinical appointment.

If she didn’t meet those goals, she would lose protections like access to her products, going to school camps, and meeting friends. And Ivy was the one enforcing adherence because she was a stay-at-home family.

Ivy, 58, says,” I had to treat her like a little child and be very strict with her.” Sophie became enraged by this, and the mother and daughter started yelling at one another.

Sophie did not put on fat despite all of this. Ivy recalls seeing foods that had been thrown away in the toilet bowl and catching her in her chamber lying around eating and working out covertly.

Ivy and her father ultimately had to take Sophie to the hospital in 2019 for this reason.

Ivy says,” I felt bad.” Yet though she disagrees, I felt compelled to do something I didn’t need to.

In the fifth season of the podcast Inadequate by CNA Insider, Ivy shares her story. With profound tales about overcoming paternal conundrums, the short series explores the issues that every parent will encounter.