Jess McCormick has been left at her wit’s end as she continues hitting roadblocks in the search for a diagnosis for her three-year-old son, who refuses to eat and regularly vomits
A distressed mum who watched her son refuse to eat for two years and vomit four times a day is searching for urgent answers after doctors were left puzzled by his symptoms.
Jess McCormick and her partner’s young son Ronnie McGee fed normally like any other child after he was born, taking milk until just after he turned one. But at 18 months, the youngster started refusing to eat, and the mum said the now three-year-old has refused to eat a full meal since. Jess, from Huyton in Knowsley, Merseyside, has grown increasingly desperate after visiting a host of medical and nutritional professionals, and is now wrapped in a daily battle against her ensuing panic.
Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO, Jess said she and her partner have been passed from “pillar-to-post” as they struggle to find out what has happened, and what support the toddler could get.
She said they have visited their GP, met with the paediatrics team at Whiston Hospital, dieticians, and the world-renowned team of Alder Hey children’s hospital. But they have yet to receive a confirmed diagnosis as Ronnie refuses to take on anything but milk while rejecting everything else.
She said: “Every day is a battle to keep the panic from overwhelming me. Watching your baby son suffer and not being able to get the right help is absolutely heartbreaking.”
The mum added: “The only thing Ronnie is able to take on is milk and that is the only thing he has digested for two years.” She was told after rushing to A&E one day that Ronnie, who was also vomiting four times a day, did not have an unusual relationship with food for a child his age.
She said Ronnie appeared to be “terrified” of his food, and refused to touch anything he was offered. She said: “He just appeared to be terrified of the food and wouldn’t eat it, wouldn’t touch it, didn’t want to be near it.”
The tot was eventually left in constant bowel pain with loose movements, with Jess left at breaking point when she took him to Alder Hey. She said: “I took him to Alder Hey once again and just broke down crying. A nurse came over and they could see the distress I was in. I showed them all the photos of Ronnie’s stools and his vomiting and said we were at our wit’s end.
“A short time later, we ended up getting a call from the paediatrics team at Whiston Hospital who said they thought Ronnie could be suffering from a condition called Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).”
The NHS classes ARFID as an heating disorder, but not in the traditional sense, as it is caused by avoidance of certain foods and limiting food intake rather than beliefs about their weight or body shape. Jess had no idea what it was at first, but later learned ARFID can be caused by negative feelings over the smell, taste and texture of certain foods, or not feeling hungry or interested in eating.
However, while she was told ARFID is a likely explanation, Jess is yet to receive an official diagnosis for Ronnie’s food problem. Although she was told a specialist ARFID team could get Ronnie diagnosed.
But the team is only operating in Liverpool and Sefton, and, while the family lives just around the corner from the hospital, their GP is based in Knowsley, meaning she can’t get her son the help he needs.
A spokesperson for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside said: “We’re sorry to hear about the difficulties Ronnie and his family have experienced while trying to access ARFID services. We recognise that there is limited access to specialist ARFID services across the region and the country.
“We’re currently reviewing how children and families in Cheshire and Merseyside can get the support they need, wherever they live, more easily.”