Parents of children with cystic fibrosis are having to make heart-wrenching decisions to “starve” some family members so their kids get the food they need.
Most people with the genetic condition need to eat more calories due to the mucus which builds up in the lungs and digestive system, causing them to have issues digesting food.
As a result of the cost of living crisis some families are having to choose for some to go without so their children with CF get enough food to survive, Birmingham Live reports.
Nicola Johnson, whose eleven-year-old son George Monckton has the condition, says many mothers like her are worried about rising prices.
She added: “George’s health has to come first.
“Our kids need a high calorie diet, they need about a third more calories than people without cystic fibrosis. We can’t cut back on the food that George needs because he's still underweight”
“So George is getting a good meal every day and the rest of us are getting the scraps.
“It’s almost turning the clock back to the times where the man of the family would get a good meal while the rest of the family would share what’s left."
Another mother, who asked to be known only as Sarah, has two children with the condition and says energy and fuel costs have made her family’s life “unmanageable”.
She added: “Our food bills have gone up from about £170-a-week a year ago to £250-a-week now.
“That’s much higher than a normal family-of-five but if you look at the food that our CF children need, it’s easily triple what a child at that age would have to eat.
“They need high-calorie, high-fat foods - such as salmon, steak - but obviously they're not cheap. I understand that all families are struggling, but the impact on families who have children with health problems has been massive.
“We’ve tried to cut back on food shopping as much as we possibly can, but if you cut back on cost, then you cut back on calories - which means your children become underweight and end up in hospital.
“It’s just really, really difficult at the moment. We’re trying to cut back on anything we can - we don’t have Sky anymore, we’re on the cheapest phone tariffs, we’ve cancelled our home insurance and holidays.
“Sadly you’ve got to prioritise - our other child will have less food because they physically need it less.
“My eldest daughter asked me the other week, ‘are you and dad poor?’ She’s 12-years-old and we don’t talk about money around her, but even she can see we’re struggling.”
Sarah and her partner gave up work to care for their children who are regularly in and out of hospital. They rely on carers allowance.
According to a Mirror survey , nearly two million Brits are skipping meals after a jump in food prices - with one in four admitting they have resorted to eating food past its best-before date.
West Midlands Police are said to be worried the cost of living crisis will spark a surge in crime as desperate parents resort to stealing food rather than seeing their kids go hungry.
