I’m Scared for my Brother
Hello. I 22F have a brother (21M) who has been ‘picky’ his entire life. The last year I recently learned about arfid and after discussion with a professional have come up with the proper diagnoses for him. I’m at a loss on how to help him.
I know he’s a grown man- but I want to be supportive but how he describes food makes it quite difficult for me to map out the best way to go about it. He doesn’t have insurance so consulting a proper nutritionist or therapist for the underlying issues causing it is not possible at this time. (He’s working on getting it through his job)
He has a hard time with texture and temperature and has a very limited list of safe foods. Recently one of his safe foods became unsafe and I am stressing about it.
He’s extremely underweight and definitely not the healthiest. My parents our entire childhood did nothing to address the issue and now it’s effecting him as an adult. He often tells me he wishes he didn’t have to eat.
I’m not looking for sympathy- I just want suggestions of how I can better support him and maybe lead him into trying new foods? I don’t want to push him, I just want him to be able to gain weight as he’s very insecure about his body. (He’s almost thirty pounds underweight for his height.)
Any suggestions would be very appreciated- thank you for reading!
Sincerely, a very concerned older sister.