The children who eat themselves to death

What if you knew that no matter how you tried, your child was doomed to suffer from morbid obesity? How far would you go to improve their life?

Have you ever heard of ‘hypothalamic obesity’? This is the condition Alexis Shapiro, 12, has developed after having an operation two years ago to remove a benign brain tumour. Before the operation she was at a normal weight.

Now she weighs almost 90 kilos and the Texas girl is facing terrible health challenges as a result.

The condition makes Alexis' body feel like it is starving and this primal hunger drives her to eat as much as she can. Her mother Jenny has tried everything she can think of for her daughter to lose weight but nothing has worked.

"She’s always hungry,' her father Ian Shapiro told the Daily Mail. "In the past, we’ve had to padlock the cupboard."

Now the morbid obesity is threatening her daughter's health. The beautiful little girl has told psychologists she wants to die. She is in constant pain and is being home schooled to avoid being seen in public.

"She doesn’t have any friends or anything like that," her mother Jenny Shapiro said. "It’s so sad, because she remembers what it was like before."

Alexis is on a restricted diet but is still gaining weight, has suffered from a kidney infection and has developed type 2 diabetes. She needs insulin injections daily.

Doctors consulting with the family have suggested Alexis have a gastric bypass operation however their healthcare fund refused to pay for the $56,000 operation because they have deemed Alexis too young for the procedure.

Her doctors, on the other hand, say the surgery will restrict how much food she can consume but also cure her of the condition that causes her to feel hungry all the time.

So the family turned to a crowd-funding campaign on Go Fund Me to try and raise the money and have succeeded. Excited mum Jenny Shapiro posted the following message:

An Aussie mum, Rebecca Mizzi, is facing a similar heartache. Her daughter, Ava, 11 months, has developed Prader-Willi Syndrome. It's a genetic condition and means little Ava is doomed to develop obsessive eating habits to try and satisfy her body that will always feel like it is being starved.

She may very well gorge herself to death.

Her concerned parents travel back and forth from their home in Gunnedah in NSW to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, trying to treat their daughter's condition.

The condition will not only cause excessive eating, it will also cause facial abnormalities, low muscle tone and learning difficulties.

Most of Ava's first year of life has been spent travelling to and from doctors and hospitals which is hard on their other two children. "They’ve been dragged from pillar to post all year, and as a parent, you do feel guilty," Rebecca told The Northern Daily Leader. "They’re sick of doctor’s appointments, sick of seeing an ambulance pull up and Mum disappear. We just want to … spend time with family.”

Ava case won't be fixed with weight loss surgery and from the age of 2 she will developed the voracious appetite associated with the condition. Her parents and doctors can only try and control it as best they can.

“But she’s our baby and we’ll always fight to give her the best. To us, this is life now. And life goes on.”

Images courtesy of Facebook

Have you ever considered gastric surgery?