my close to 13 year old brother is adhd and is stealing food. how do i stop him from doing so?

[twilightqueen]

my almost 13 year old brother is stealing food from everyone in the house. he does it during the night. we feed him regularly and let him have snacks also. but he still gets up in the middle of the night to steal food. we put a lock on everything where the food is in. but my mom feel like she should have to do that anymore. we did have an alarm on his door at night when we go to sleep so when he gets up to do the stealing we get up due to the alarm but he has gotten to smart for that. my mom has about given up on him. but is still determined to try to stop him but has been unsuccessful in doing so. we have little money so we cant go out everyday to get more food because of him taking the food. please help us.

[Sandman2]

   Dang, at that weight (I hope he is tall), he is stealing the food cause he is hungry.   And ya, its not going stop without some kind of medical help.
   If he could get into sports where they would help him get into shape - that might be his best bet.  Does he play football?

[shart3101]

Me and my sister buy our own food for the fact that we do not always like what my parents have or we want toto have a certain things.  We have penalty of good food, but he is fifteen and weights over three hundred pounds, butt he finds the need to not ask for the food and it is full meals, after a full meal, a buffet.  He is not receiving any help either.  My dad is still in denial about it.  His ADHD.  My dad was As he as well and got in a lot oF trouble, so they believe there is nothing they can do to prevent it.  Him getting into future trouble.

[Sandman2]

   I guess the first question is why do you and your sister have to buy food?  The easy way to get a person to stop stealing food is to have plenty of GOOD food available.  
   The second question is - is your bro getting any help at all for his ADHD.  If he is not being medicated and if he is not getting any professional counseling - stealing food might be just a small part of a later problem.
    Essentially - "Stimulant treatment has a protective effect on the development of drug- and alcohol-related substance use disorders," the investigators conclude.  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/807611?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=96999MR
      You might want to have your mom post here if she has any questions.

[shart3101]

My brother is 15 and does the same thing, but he eats it right away and hides the wrappers.  He does have ADHD but my mom will not medicate him.  And he does not do it for attention, because he hides the wrappers and denies them when we find them.  My mom tried talking to him and me and my sister tried to belittle him.  We give him attention all the time.  He doesn't steal from anyone, but his family.  Me and my sister have stashes in our rooms, food we buy, because of him. He claims he feels unloved, and that we are going to kill him in the middle of the night.  But claims he will kill himself.  He never lost anything, but his "imaginary friend" his words not mine.

[twilightqueen]

thank you for the answers you have given so far. my mom was also wondering how we could stop him from stealing food. i also passed on to her what ideas  you guys have said.

[twilightqueen]

and somtimes other foods.

[twilightqueen]

he steals candy and sweets but like i said we started letting him have that more to see if he would stop but he did not stop. and he is on meds. he is on two types of adderall for the daytime and clonadine for evening. and we have noticed his mind wanders alot that is why we remind him do do a chore more than when we ask him to do a chore and we do sit him down each time he does the stealing and tell him that is wrong. we do give him attention. especially me i would let him watch movies with me quite a bit but i tell him he needs to do a chore and homework first.

[Sandman2]

   Very good points by tschock.  I wonder what kind of food is he stealing and what does he do with it?  Does he eat it or do you find it in his room the next day.
    If he is on meds, they can rob you of your appetite till they wear off - could be whats going on here.
   If he is actually eating the food, then I think that you should start buying some "bulk" food that you can leave out for him (or put in his room" for him to eat.

[tschock]

Sorry, should have also mentioned that sometimes people with adhd will steal because it's an impulse thing. They don't mean to do it, it "just happens".
They may walk through a store, see something they like, take it, and then realize later what they did...they did not intentionally steal it...it's just that the mind was sort of wandering at that moment.
The problem with adhd is that your mind does wander, you don't think about things, you just do them or say something inappropriate.
Have you ever noticed that he will suddenly say something out loud, whether it made sense to you or not? Maybe there was a heavy set man in front of you and your brother suddenly says out loud "He's fat".
He wasn't trying to be mean, he was just saying what he was thinking...this is the type of thing that people with adhd are known to do.
You will need to sit him down and tell him what he is doing is wrong. Don't be shocked or upset if he doesn't understand why this is wrong, sometimes they don't think the way you do.
Also wondering if he's on meds for his adhd?

[tschock]

First of all he needs to have a specialist look at him.
Perhaps his problem is a vitamin deficiency. If his body is not getting the vitamins he needs he would crave more food.
He could have a tapeworm. These nasty little creatures cause you to be hungry all the time. They live in the stomach and eat all the food as it comes in, causing you to starve and bloat.
He may have a psychological disorder called hoarding. Most people hoard because thier lives are lacking in something. You say you don't have much money, so perhaps he is hoarding in case the food runs out. This way he knows he will have some.
Perhaps he's hoarding it because he doesn't feel loved, or because he lost something or someone close to him.
An old neighbor of mine was a hoarder. He started when his wife left him. He started hoarding food and then junk. His place got condemned because he would go to the local garbage dump and just take...junk.
His life was empty so he replaced it with the junk.

Perhaps he does it for attention. Does your family give him lots of attention when he's good, or only when he's stealing the food? If he only gets attention when he takes food then maybe that is his problem.
Perhaps he is doing this in his sleep? Sleepwalkers have been known to do odd things.

As you can see, there are many reasons why he could be doing this. He really needs help or it won't stop, but get worse.