Living with ARFID

Hey everyone! Do you know what ARFID is? No, me either but mercifully we have some clever and lovely people in our gang. Our lovely member Tabitha is a children’s services caseworker and wondered if we might be able to help poor Frankie. Well, as it was children in need last week, thought it might be nice if we could help a young person directly. 

Frankie is 10 and has autism and ARFID – Avoidant / Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.  Frankie’s ARFID is quite severe.  He only eats three very specific food items, some of which have to be fed to him by mum as the feeling of food around his mouth causes him acute distress.  Frankie’s ARFID has a significant impact on his everyday life, he is only able to attend school for a few hours a day to work around his feeding schedule and the older he gets, the more he’s slipping behind his friends and missing out on the simply joy of running around the playground.  Therapeutic support for ARFID is not available on the NHS in East Sussex.  Mum would like to find funding to be able to access private therapeutic support for Frankie, with the hope that a combination of nutritional and psychological intervention can help Frankie begin to breakdown the barriers that his ARFID creates for him and his family.

Forever grateful for you and the other 498 x