On the second day of Christmas, the anorexia recovery gave to me... “Two hearty breakfasts”…

I can't remember when my son first began to have not one but two breakfasts every day. I think it may have been back in 2012 as he pushed for recovery from anorexia after the introduction of our fantastically successful 'Contract' at Easter 2011. And, as far as I am aware, he has continued to consume double breakfasts ever since.


The same goes for evening snacks. When he's at home, he'll sit in front of the TV after our evening meal and snack through till about 9pm - healthy but calorific snacks, the kind of food that helped to restore a balanced diet. He firmly believes that his fully balanced diet helped to heal his brain and put him on the road to recovery from his eating disorder.

Back in the Bad Old Days when my son was very sick with anorexia, I remember being invited round for drinks at a friend's house. One of the women was going on about how her son had his breakfast at home before picking up his mate from a house down the road. Unbeknown to his mum, the boy was consuming a SECOND breakfast at his mate's house before the boys continued on to school.

At the time, this story broke my heart; I was only too well aware that it was difficult to get my son to eat any breakfast at all, let alone two. While the other people were laughing at this 'amusing' tale, I just wanted to flee from the room.

But now my son has double breakfasts, too. OK maybe it's not fried bacon sandwiches or sausages, but it is stacks of cereal, dried and fresh fruit, nuts, sometimes toast or rolls, that kind of thing.

And the first time my son rushed downstairs in the morning exclaiming "Mum, I'm STARVING!!", I felt as if I'd won the lottery.

CLICK HERE to read 'The 12 days of (ED) Christmas' - a series of posts from Christmas 2011 which talk about the nightmare of living with a young person with an eating disorder (PDF)