Health
Little-known eating disorder nearly starved a 9-year-old: 'It was tormenting her'
Of the list of eating disorders, ARFID might not be one that you recognize – but it can be just as dangerous as the better-known conditions.
ARFID, or Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, is defined by the Cleveland Clinic as a condition that limits a person’s food intake. It is recognized in the DSM-5 (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses by the American Psychiatric Association).
The disorder is marked by intense fear and anxiety about food and its specific qualities – like smell, taste and texture – or the consequences of eating, such as choking.
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Limiting food intake at an extreme level can lead to malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies, which 9-year-old Hannah of Los Angeles has experienced.
Hannah and her mom, Michelle, (who chose not to disclose their last name) sat down for an interview with Fox News Digital to discuss their journey with ARFID, which has included a prominent social media presence.
On Instagram, the duo has 1.5 million followers. Their TikTok account (@myarfidlife), features videos of Hannah bravely trying new foods, which have reached millions of views among nearly 460,000 followers.
Long before Hannah began sharing her journey on camera, Michelle struggled with what she thought was just a “picky eater.”
“I realized this was way more than just picky eating. This was obviously tormenting her.”
Michelle explained that Hannah, who is the youngest of three, was a “great eater” as a baby — until she was introduced to solid foods.
“She would protest, and she would spit the food out, or she would swat it out of my hand, or she would turn her head in the other direction,” she said — all “pretty common” behaviors among kids.
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But by the time Hannah turned 3, Michelle said she had started refusing even the select foods she once ate.
“It was very frustrating for us because she was already so limited as to what she was willing to eat,” she said.
Michelle, pictured here with her husband and three children, noted that Hannah’s case looked “very different” from her oldest son, who is autistic and had a hard time eating as a newborn. (@myarfidlife)
Since Hannah was still growing normally, her doctors “weren’t too concerned,” and assumed she’d grow out of the picky eating.
After COVID-19 hit, Michelle said Hannah’s eating took a turn for the worse, and she eliminated even more food.
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“It was a big struggle to get her to eat anything at all,” she said. “She had no interest in food whatsoever, and her growth started to slow down.”
Hannah’s doctors ran tests to see if there was another health condition, such as IBS or celiac disease. She was referred to other specialists, from endocrinologists to nutritionists.
Hannah was also seeing a feeding therapist, which caused “a lot of stress and anxiety,” her mother noted.
Hannah, pictured with her mom Michelle, shared that she likes to draw, read and write, and play with slime. (@myarfidlife)
The doctors instructed Michelle to continue offering Hannah food when she was hungry, but her daughter’s condition only worsened.
“She couldn’t handle being around food,” she said. “She couldn’t handle sitting at the dinner table with us. She couldn’t handle the smell when I was cooking something in the kitchen.”
As Hannah got older, she didn’t grow out of the condition, but was able to verbalize her internal struggle.
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“We were in a drive-thru and I asked [Hannah], ‘What would you like me to order?’ And she broke down at that moment and asked me, ‘Why is it that every time you talk about food, it makes me really anxious?’” Michelle recalled.
“Hearing those words … I realized that this was way more than just picky eating. This was obviously tormenting her.”
Seeking help and ‘validation’
Michelle decided to seek help from a mental health care professional and found a therapist who specialized in ARFID. She said their first conversation was “so validating.”
“I remember saying to her, ‘She has very few foods that she’s willing to eat. And one of the foods is sour cream and onion Pringles, but they have to be in a special packaging. She refuses to eat the Pringles that come in the large container. They have to come in the individual small containers.’”
“And hearing the words from her — ‘This is so classic of ARFID’ — was so validating.”
The “psycho-social interference” of ARFID can be difficult in social settings, like at school and parties, according to an eating disorder expert. Hannah, pictured with her brothers, is living with the condition. (@myarfidlife)
The therapist first recommended nutritional protein shakes, which were difficult for Hannah to stomach.
But Hannah, who was dangerously underweight, told her mother, “I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
“She was at risk of needing a feeding tube,” Michelle told Fox News Digital. “She fell off the growth chart and wasn’t gaining weight. She wasn’t growing in height.”
“I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
“She just wasn’t getting the nutrition she needed. She was very weak, lethargic and sleeping a lot.”
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Michelle tried fun ways to get Hannah to drink the shakes, like timing her and seeing if she could beat her previous record.
Next, Michelle suggested taking a video of Hannah drinking her shake to send to her new therapist.
Hannah was immediately interested in how her therapist would respond.
Hannah says her famous tagline, “Here I go,” before taking a bite of food in her videos. (TikTok/@myarfidlife)
Michelle then decided to share the video online to help clue in friends and family about what Hannah was dealing with, and to help explain why she wasn’t able to attend holidays or birthday parties due to the presence of food.
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Since that first post, Hannah and Michelle’s social media following has skyrocketed, with thousands of strangers cheering on and motivating Hannah.
“Hannah’s grown so much physically and emotionally. Her confidence has soared,” Michelle said. “She’s a completely different kid.”
“There’s curiosity and motivation and excitement — definitely still a lot of anxiety, but she’s working through it.”
Hannah and Michelle are pictured wearing “Here I Go” T-shirts, which are on sale to help promote ARFID awareness. (@myarfidlife)
Now 9, Hannah is using her platform to spread ARFID awareness and share tips she learns in therapy.
“Many people since we started our page have discovered that this is what they’ve dealt with their whole life,” Michelle said.
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“It’s just really nice to meet other people who can understand each other and share stories.”
Hannah added that the encouragement she gets online helps motivate her to try new foods.
“It makes me really happy because I know I’m helping other people,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I’m also helping myself, too.”
Hannah shared that she feels proud of her continuous bravery.
“I feel good,” she said. “I’m really energetic today.”
Tips for overcoming ARFID
During her sessions, Hannah undergoes exposure therapy as well as talk therapy.
“We do breathing exercises and coping skills,” she said. “We also try different foods.”
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Taylor Rae Homesley, executive director of The Emily Program’s Atlanta-based Eating Disorder Treatment Center, works with ARFID patients.
She shared more details on the condition in an interview with Fox News Digital.
While symptoms may vary, limited food intake based on texture or food group, is a standout sign, one expert said. (iStock)
Since ARFID was coined as a “new term to describe something that’s existed for a long time,” Homesley said it has brought more awareness to the condition and how best to treat it.
There are three types of ARFID symptoms that parents should look for in their children, according to Homesley.
1. Fear of consequences
“I’m afraid I’m going to throw up, I’m afraid I’m going to get a stomachache, I’m afraid I’m going to choke,” the expert listed as examples.
2. Lack of interest in eating or food
“These are kids and adults who just aren’t motivated by food,” she said.
“They’re the ones who may be playing outside for hours and hours and don’t think, ‘It’s time to eat now.’”
3. Avoidance of food based on sensory characteristics
“These are the kids and adults who are super limited in what they’re eating due to those sensory things,” Homesley said.
“They may have aversions to taste, texture, smell or temperature of food.”
“[ARFID] needs to be treated differently and recognized as a different eating disorder,” one specialist said. (iStock)
“A lot of our patients with ARFID are what we consider super tasters,” the therapist added. “They taste bitter flavors at a higher intensity than the rest of us.”
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Treatment is still being developed for ARFID, but methods like cognitive behavioral therapy have proven helpful, according to Homesley.
Michelle noted that ARFID needs “a lot more awareness” and community building, which led her to start the ARFID Awareness nonprofit.
“Help is not readily available, and it’s very unfortunate because ARFID is lifelong, and it’s something that does require treatment,” she said.
“I feel like bringing community together and using our voices [is important] so that people see there’s a need.”
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A distraught mother who thought she was having a heart attack was instead hospitalized with broken heart syndrome — otherwise known as takotsubo syndrome (TTS) — less than a year after her veteran son tragically took his own life.
Dawn Turner, 57, of the U.K., lost her son in August of last year.
Just last month, the mom of three awoke with “unbearable” chest pains, she said — and called an ambulance, worried she was going into cardiac arrest. But when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she was suffering from the effects of grief caused by a broken heart, as news agency SWNS reported.
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TTS is a temporary, reversible heart condition often triggered by extreme emotional or physical stress, such as grief, fear or severe illness, according to experts.
Symptoms usually mimic a heart attack, with sudden and severe chest pain and shortness of breath the most common — and it primarily affects women over the age of 50.
A mom whose soldier son took his own life feared she was suffering cardiac arrest — only to be told by hospital doctors that she was feeling the effects of grief caused by a broken heart. Dawn Turner, mother of deceased soldier Rob Homans, is pictured above, April 2026. (SWNS)
Turner, of Eckington in Worcester, said, “I was [sitting] downstairs earlier that night and thought I had a bit of indigestion. I went to bed and just couldn’t get comfortable — I was breaking out in a sweat and had heart palpitations.
“Then, around midnight, I had pain down my arm and in my jaw. I was still putting it down to indigestion… My partner Paul asked me if I was all right, and I said, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack.’”
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She said she couldn’t catch her breath — “and my heart felt as though it was missing a beat and then [started] thudding again. For those moments, I truly believed I was having a heart attack.”
“Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat,” Turner was told.
She said her partner called emergency services, and an ambulance arrived within five minutes.
“They came in and linked me up to an ECG. They said, ‘Your heart is all over the place — there’s an extra beat, and it’s all over the place,’” she said, as SWNS reported.
Turner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
Turner is shown with her son in full dress uniform. He worked as an artilleryman and spent 10 years in the U.K.’s Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006. He was battling mental health challenges after his military service, and ultimately took his own life. (SWNS)
In emergency care, Turner was also given blood tests.
She added, “They came back and said I didn’t have the enzymes produced from a heart attack in my blood. But they said there [was] something going on.”
After undergoing more tests and seeing a cardiologist, Turner was told she had takotsubo syndrome.
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“I told [the doctor] that my heart feels broken. I told her about [my son] Rob, and she said it’s exactly that. She said it’s a real thing, and that I’d been under so much stress. The body can only take so much, and the grief and the stress can be quite physical.”
Turner’s son committed suicide in August 2025 after struggling to get help with his mental health.
He spent 10 years in the Royal Horse Artillery after joining in 2006, when he worked as an artilleryman.
Turner’s son did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said. After he returned to civilian life, he began suffering from a number of health conditions. She’s shown above with a flower-draped memorial to her son. (SWNS)
He did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, she said, and returned to civilian life in 2016 before suffering several worsening health conditions.
Turner, who is also the CEO of a veterans charity called Stepway, “When he left the army, he got married, and they settled down in London. He walked straight into a job as a delivery driver. But then his health took a downward spiral, and he started having digestive troubles.”
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He was eventually told he had PTSD — but those symptoms may be similar to those of mild traumatic brain injury, Turner said.
“He was deaf in one ear from using the guns,” she said. “He realized he was putting so much pressure on his marriage, so he moved back up with me. He started to build himself up — then COVID hit.”
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Turner said there were unfortunate delays as her son tried to get access to various services and facilities.
“When people lose loved ones, you’re obviously distraught, but you eventually find closure,” she said, per SWNS. “I found peace when I lost my sister in 2015. But with Rob, I can’t find closure because there’s no justice there.”
“I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” said the grieving mom. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack.” (iStock)
Turner is now on the mend and hopes to be fully recovered in a couple of weeks, SWNS reported.
“Until that moment, I had never really understood that a person could become so overwhelmed by stress and grief that it physically affects the heart,” she shared. “Broken heart syndrome can look and feel like a heart attack. It was a warning sign for me, and for anyone. It can change the shape of one of your heart chambers … it can cause some serious damage.”
She added, “The cardiologist told me that thankfully, my heart itself is healthy and there was no damage, but that it will take around two weeks to a month for my heart to reboot itself.”
“Maybe the extra [heart]beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him,” her partner told her.
Turner was told she needed to rest, seek counseling and make lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
“Things have settled down, and I’m taking things easy — I’m pacing myself now, and I feel a lot better. Paul said, ‘Maybe the extra beat is for Rob. You are carrying on living for him.’”
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Turner said, “That broke me and healed me a little bit all at once.”
Fox News Digital previously reported that broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, as studies have found.
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In an article published in the European Heart Journal in March 2019, Swiss researchers said they found that the syndrome is linked to the way the brain communicates with the heart.
Broken heart syndrome, which causes the heart to temporarily weaken, has been linked to the brain’s reaction to stress, studies have found. (iStock)
Caused by intense emotional events, TTS is a rare, temporary condition that weakens the left ventricle and disrupts its normal pumping function.
The syndrome causes the heart’s main pumping chamber to change shape and get larger. The heart muscle becomes weaker, and its pumping action loses strength.
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Symptoms include sudden, intense chest pain, pressure or heaviness in the chest, along with shortness of breath.
It is treated with beta blockers and blood-thinning medicine to reduce risks of clots and other flareups.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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