From Lola, Child's Age 15 - 09/30/22 - IP#: 174.195.200.xxx  Click here to reply  
Hi y'all! I am Lola, a single mom of one son, Dominic who is fifteen and two months. My Dominic has never been an athletic kid but always stayed active and ate very well. Over the past year he lost interest in taking walks and visiting his friends and has been spending all his time inside on the computer or in bed on his phone. I noticed that his appetite changed as well. Around February he started quickly scarfing down large helpings of food, and then grabbing a few bags of junk and snacking in his room. He rarely changed out of his pajamas and seemed to be uncomfortable in tight clothes. April is when I noticed that he was getting out of shape. He's small for his age, 5'1 and was always under average weight. Well, he started to dress up more and I could notice that his clothes weren't fitting how they used to. His arms were slimmer and his waistline had gotten bigger along with his legs. Now considering how short he is compared to me and his (deceased) father, 5'5 and 5'7 respectively, I blamed it on a growth spurt. He continued his eating routine and I was going to wait for his doctor to explain to him why he was gaining weight. I assumed he had noticed, as he grew out a few pairs of jeans and it really had become obvious to me at least that he was chubbier. By the time of his appointment in early June, he weighed 120 pounds, 5'1 and a half. The doctor informed him that his bmi had increased and was higher than before, (18 before, 22 then) which he understood and had admitted he realized he put on a little weight. The appointment was smooth and everything was fine until we left. During the car ride home it looked like he was joking back tears. I asked him what was wrong and he said everything was fine. I wasn't going to lay into him because I thought that would make things worse. That morning, when I got up I noticed the bathroom scale was missing. I found it in the bathroom closet, batteries ripped out. I felt awful. Since then he started to wear baggier clothes and I still didn't talk to him about it. His grades were great and he was still social (talking to his friends on the phone) so I assumed he wasn't depressed, maybe just self-conscious. However, he was eating less of his meals and going through snacks much, much quicker. I started to switch out the snacks to healthier options but then he started buying them in school or on his own, so I really just gave up on that. I couldn't tell if he was gaining anymore weight and he actually seemed to be very happy up until the point I am writing this. His doctor no longer supported our insurance, so following a switch they recommended an annual just to refresh. I had really ignored his weight gain at this point and wasn't thinking. When I picked him up from school, I told him he was going to meet his new doctor and that was it. I didn't feel the need to mention that it was another routine check up. I waited during the appointment. It was afterwards she wanted to meet with me and him. When they walked over to the waiting room I could tell Dominic was flushed. She sat me down and stood behind him and asked him to take off his sweatshirt, which he did reluctantly. She drew around the shape of his stomach with both and said something like, "since his last appointment, your son has become overweight