Tips for Bulimics

One of the most important things to know, is that after you purge you should NOT EVER brush your teeth. Instead, rinse with baking soda dissolved in water until you can't taste the purge. The baking soda will neutralize your stomach acid. Yes, brushing will get rid of it, but the acid has already touched and weakened your teeth, so the last thing they need is to have more abrasive pressure.

Baking soda water (30oz water for 3.5tsp soda) is also a help for purging. Yes, drink water it will make it come up easier, but with the soda in it it will also help to make the stomach acid SLIGHTLY less harmful to your esophagus. It's still awful for you, but the damage will be less if the acidity is slightly lower.

Apparently there are some sites that suggest tying some dental floss around a cotton ball, swallowing the cotton ball and yanking it back up. Yes, this will make you vomit, and yes- it will also do MUCH more damage than pure stomach acid could do alone. You could choke on it, for one. The floss can easily cut your esophagus worse than any acid could tear it, and the cotton ball is made of lots of fibers which can also destroy you. Especially if the floss breaks and you try to digest it. You do NOT want a cotton ball going through your system. (this no-no basically found and paraphrased from http://www.ceruleanbutterfly.com )

Ipecac- never EVER use it. The reason it makes you vomit is because it is a POISON. Your body recognizes this, and tries to expel it and anything else it could've contaminated. If your body does not recognize it as a poison, it will not expel it and it will KILL you. This can happen your first use, or the body will eventually accept it and it will not expel it. So even if it "works" the first time, you could die the second time. Even if your body does expel it, you can still go into cardiac arrest, because ipecac is THAT BAD. Never EVER use it.

More later. Those are the main ones, I think. If I've forgotten anything major, be sure to tell me pronto- miarexia@yahoo.com