Wednesday, April 27, 2011

5yo worries

My 5yo asked me, "Mom, how do I exercise so I can lose some weight?"

Oh, no. Looks like Mom needs to stop talking about losing the baby weight.

I believe it is crucial to teach children to enjoy being active, offer them healthy food and instill good health habits, but when a 5yo who is completely healthy is worrying about losing weight? Mom and Dad probably need to watch what they are saying and focus on being healthy rather than losing weight.

I searched the internet for good articles on the subject. There were many on childhood obesity and how to help children lose weight (which are sadly important subjects) but there weren't as many on positive body image and one I found (that I really liked) had an ad for quick weight loss pills right next to the article. Empowered Parents had a good article, "Body Image Concerns in Young Children" by Abigal Natenshon.

What do you do to make sure you're sending healthy body image messages to your children?

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