I’ve been following a thread recently on the adoptive parent support forum. Several posters are discussing concerns about their child’s eating issues and hoarding behaviors.

Eating issues with newly adopted children are a very common concern. Still, when it happens with YOUR adopted child, it doesn’t seem to matter how common it might be. It’s a big deal and all parents want to be sure they are handling this issue in a way to help their children grow and not in a way that might further harm them or make their root issues worse.

Our first foster daughter would stuff her face even after she was already full, letting food spill out while she was still putting more in. (Gross visual image, I know.) She was only a delayed 17mos old little girl and didn’t really have much opportunity to sneak food. However, her behaviors during mealtimes surely let us know that she had lost her ability to regulate her food intake. As she got older, she’d hide little pieces of food in the pockets of her clothes – a couple or raisins or cheerios, just a little, but she did try to make sure she had some food to take with her after getting down from the high chair.

One of our adopted sons snuck food and kept it in hiding spots all over the house. I’ll never forget the day I went into the hamper to get the laundry and found a 5lb package of hot dogs that he’d put there! I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when I realized that he’d even stashed a bottle of ketchup to use with those hot dogs. Or, the most strange of his hiding incidents I think, was when he took six chocolate bars – which happened to be free for the asking anyway – and hid them stacked on the bathroom floor behind the toilet! What made this even more strange is that he does not even like chocolate and usually refuses to eat it! Most of the time, granted, he did steal things he liked to eat and, most of the time, they were kept in hiding spots in his bedroom. All of the incidents, however, told me that there was something going on inside of him that made food more of a hoarding issue than a simple “I was just hungry and then forgot to eat in the kitchen” issue.

So why would he do this kind of sneaking and hording? What is behind a child’s need to hoard food? And how should parents respond to help a child?

In my next blog, I will share a few of the answers that I've found.