Nikki stopped eating her dinner shortly before her eighth birthday. “I’m not hungry,” she announced. Nothing major had happened, but overnight it was like she had become a sad, solemn, withdrawn little girl.
I remember it was Mother’s Day and we were out for a family meal. Not only would she not eat, but she wouldn’t sit down. She stood close to my side at the table as though she was under attack.
Very gradually, she started losing weight, and a couple of months after I’d first spotted her lack of appetite, the school rang to tell me she wasn’t participating and was struggling to concentrate.
I didn’t realise it at the time but she was ditching her packed lunch and not eating for the whole school day. I used to be a fan of Karen Carpenter [an American singer who died in 1983 of anorexia, aged 32], so the word “anorexia” had crossed my mind.
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