@Kardamom She had always had pretty serious anxiety issues, and when she happened to gag (not even choke, just gag!) on her food twice in two days… well, that did her in. She didn’t eat another bite of solid food for over a year. It was really awful. At 8 years of age, she weighed just 44½ pounds. It took months to even find a therapist who could help her, this phobia is so rare. Luckily, the only expert on it in the whole country turned out to be at Children’s Hospital in Washington, DC… fairly close to our home! She absolutely hated going, but we persevered, anyway.
The treatment consisted of an old school tri-cyclic anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drug (because it was available in liquid form) coupled with de-sensitization therapy. Similar to the treatment for any phobia… working up from the least scary thing (say, making a list of your favorite foods) to a scary thing (seeing pictures of food) to a more scary thing (eating one soggy cheerio) and on up the scale to the terrifying things. The first time, this took place over many, many months. Once she was back to eating a limited menu, the therapy and drugs stopped. A while later she relapsed once, and went back to the regimen, taking only weeks to recover that time.
She still suffered from the anxiety and panic attacks, so medication and general therapy (with a different therapist – one she enjoyed seeing) did continue for several years. Today, she is 15 years old and has been out of therapy and off the medication for a couple of years. She still has some anxiety (and a pretty limited diet, by most standards… but a HUGE improvement for her), but overall she is doing just great! She’s a tough kid, that one. :)
PS: She is the lovely mangeons, here on Fluther. She’ll probably kill me for telling you that, so shhhh.