This, after a recent study published in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders revealed that comments about children’s weight issue is have been identified as predictors of unhealthy eating habits , binge eating and other negative behaviours related to eating problems and conditions.
Parents should better not discuss children’s weight issue
This has often been the predicament of parents when often faced with a situation whether they want to break it to their children about their weight especially when faced with mounting concerns of over eating or irregular eating patterns.
The findings of the study revealed that parents should never make comments about a child’s weight, even if it is meant as an advice to ‘shed off fat’ as it can contribute to a child- especially among young girls- regarding a chronic dissatisfaction with her body- even if the child is not close to being overweight or obese.
Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut said that this “longitudinal research shows it can have a lasting impact.”
“Parents who have a child who’s identified as having obesity may be worried, but the way those concerns are discussed and communicated can be really damaging,” says Puhl,
Puhl said that their study shows that this condition is more damaging towards girls due to their increased exposure “to so many messages about thinness and body weight” which generally becomes the stereotype of women especially on appearance.
“Oftentimes women’s value is closely linked to their appearance. If parents don’t challenge those messages, they can be internalized,” Puhl said.
The study covered more than 500 women aged between 20 to 30 who were asked to answer a survey regarding their perception of their bodies and recall how often their parents commented about their weight.
Regardless of whether they were overweight or not, the participants who recalled comments by their parents were those who believe that they needed to lose between 10 to 20 pounds, even when they showed no signs or indications of being overweight.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Brian Wansink said the study revealed the parent’s comments had a ‘scarring influence” on the children.
“We asked the women to recall how frequently parents commented, but the telling thing was that if they recalled it happening at all, it had as bad an influence as if it happened all the time,” said Dr. Wansink, who is also the author of the book “Slim by Design” adding that a “few comments were the same as commenting all the time. It seems to make a profound impression” for which parents are cautioned to never bring up children’s weight issue at all.
Image Credit: Parents Should Avoid Comments on a Child’s Weight – New York Times
The post Parents Advised Not To Bring Up Childrens Weight Issue appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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