I wholeheartedly agree that she probably has an endocrine disorder...Cushings seems a definite possibillity. I have tried for years to encourage, first her mother and now her guardian to check into this.

I rented a house on my farm to her mother when Katie was a very little girl. My daughter loved the little girl like a little sister. My daughter is about 6 years older than Katie, so they do not go to the same school. Katie's, now guardian lived with them in the house. Katie was a normal sized girl...my daughter used to pick her up and swing her around. When Katie was about 6 years old, I noticed she was gaining weight very rapidly. I didn't see her for a week or two and the weight gain was unbelievable. She developed stretch marks all over her back, stomach, thighs.....just everywhere.

I knew very little about endocrine disorders then so I talked to her mother about taking her to an eating disorders clinic that I knew about. She later told me that she had taken Katie there, but they had found no problem. I later found out that she had never taken Katie to the clinic.

They moved from the house when Katie was about 10. My daughter would go visit Katie on occassion. Katie was bigger every time that we saw her. One day Katie's mother picked my daughter up to visit overnight. On the way home the mother made a stop at an isolated house in the country. She had recently married and her husband went into the house and Katie's mother confided to my daughter that her husband was there buying drugs.

My daughter also found out that Katie was being abused by the new husband. We tried talking to Katie's mother, but she had gotten hooked on the drugs herself and just didn't seem to care. I contacted the lady that used to live with them....Katie's now guardian.... and she and Katie's older sister obtained custody of Katie. Katie is finally happy and living with her guardian who truly loves the girl. The long and short of it is that I don't want to shake up Katies life again. I really do not want to involve school counselers etc again. I feel like we have interfered in Katie's life about as much as we can....except for trying to talk to her guardian.

Katie has so many signs of an endocrine disorder. She has the weight gain, the dark areas of skin on her neck etc., the oily skin and hair and irregular periods. She started her periods at 10, but has only had a few since then. I thought that maybe showing her guardian that Katie might have symptoms of, at least, diabetes might encourage her to have her checked out. I am hopeful that she will think about it and decide to take her.

Sorry about the length of this. This has been on my mind for a long time and I guess I just needed to talk about this little girls problems with others that understand.