Refeeding Your Whumpee
TW: Disordered eating
• Your Whumpee has been starved for goodness knows how long, and you can now easily count their ribs. Now, they’re in your care.
• The easiest solution would be feeding them normally, right? Yet, your Whumpee is reluctant to eat, and what little they do get down comes right back up. Your whumpee is experiencing refeeding syndrome, a disorder in which a starved person becomes sick from eating food again.
• Treatment involves slowly reintroducing your Whumpee to normal food, while supplementing their diet with a feeding tube. Over one or two weeks, the amount of normal food is increased, and the amount of food through the tube is decreased, until the tube is no longer needed. Doesn’t sound easy, does it?
• After their first taste of food, Whumpee begins ravenously wolfing down everything in sight-- At least, when you aren’t around. Every time, this makes them terribly sick, yet, they keep eating, hoarding food, hiding and acting aggressively.
• Now what do you do? You have to keep Whumpee from eating everything, even when they insist that they’re starving. They may beg, they may cry, but it’s for their own good. Particularly sneaky Whumpees might need to have the food in the house locked up.
• What about the other end of the spectrum? A Whumpee that won’t eat, that’s far too frightened of punishment or sickness. Maybe they can try a protein shake? But, it’s been days, and they’re looking so thin... Is it right, to order them to eat, just so they don’t starve? What about forcing them?
• What about the feeding tube? Most Whumpees will shy away at the sight of it, and good luck getting them to sit still long enough for it to be inserted. You might even need to take them to a doctor-- Hopefully your Whumpee isn’t a bitey one.
• If your Whumpee was previously a pet, maybe they won’t want to eat human food. Do you allow them to eat the kibble they’ve become accustomed to? Do you make them eat human food? What about human food out of a bowl?
• Refeeding a Whumpee is certainly a challenge, but in the end, it’s for their own good. Even if it doesn’t feel like it when you practically have to force food down their throat.
