#12 - Worried About Your Child's Weight? How To Handle It With Body Kindness

Today we’re talking about kids and weight, and how your body
kindness practice can help the younger ones you love and even
families that you don’t know.


This is a touchy subject to say the least, but there’s been some
changes recently that could make an impact on our population’s
health.


The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have just updated their
2007 Guidelines on prevention of obesity and eating disorders in
adolescents. Their new recommendations are dramatically different
and make us excited that we could finally start changing the
conversation around weight and dieting.


Listen on to find out how you can be part of the change.


Here's what we talked about…


I opened with a story about a friend who was at the doctor’s
office with her young son. She was shocked when the doctor
commented on the son’s weight and poked his belly. This was an
active kid, part of a family where wellbeing is woven into their
values. But the doctor didn’t ask about lifestyle - he just made
the judgment.

This situation is not uncommon and is reflected in the
previous AAP Guidelines. In 2007 it was okay to use the term
obesity relating to children despite evidence that the term was
more harmful than helpful. It also recommended to put
“overweight” kids on commercial weight loss programs, and in some
cases even recommended weight loss surgery.

I said that as a culture a real shift will happen when we
stop seeing bodies as problems and accept size diversity.

We talked about the dramatic shifts in the 2016 AAP
guidelines. Until now dieting has been presented to the medical
community as the solution to childhood obesity. But dieting leads
to weight cycling, obesity and/or eating disorders.

Fifty years of research show that eating disorders are the
most deadly mental illness. How we can be so accepting of dieting
when the evidence shows it leads to eating disorders and
depression, is associated with bullying and even suicide? That’s
why it’s so important that these guidelines are going in the
right direction.

The new guidelines acknowledge that dieting, weight talk and
weight teasing are harmful and associated with obesity and eating
disorders.

Here’s some statistics to get the alarm bells ringing: the
AAP also found that dieting behaviours were associated with a
two-fold increase in risk of being overweight and 1.5 fold
increase in incidence of binge eating.

Parents who talked about weight had adolescents who were more
likely to engage in dieting, unhealthy weight control behaviours
and binge eating.

The new guidelines discourage physicians from talking about
weight with their patients but instead encourage focus on
behaviours.

If we can embrace size diversity accept there will always be
bigger kids, we can accept that it’s really about well being and
feeling good about our habits. If you’re not feeling good about
your habits, that’s the work. How you get there is through the
practice of body kindness - not dieting.



Links


My essay: Why the New Rules for Talking to Kids About Weight
is a Really Big Deal - http://bit.ly/2cukVf3

My advice to parents worried about their kids weight -
http://bit.ly/2cwIFM9

American Academy of Pediatrics latest guidelines -
http://bit.ly/2culw03

For more links visit http://bit.ly/bk-ep12



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health.” http://bit.ly/2k228t9


Watch my videos about why we need Body Kindness on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/W7rATQpv5y8?list=PLQPvfnaYpPCUT9MOwHByVwN1f-bL2rn1V


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Nothing in this podcast is meant to provide medical diagnosis,
treatment, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Individuals
should consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice
and answers to personal health questions.