How to Prevent an Eating Disorder: 10 Tips for Parents
Many parents worry about their children developing an eating disorder. About half of teenage girls and a quarter of teen boys will go on a diet at some point in their adolescence. Eating disorders arise from a combination of factors, including genes, lifestyle choices, and environment. Although you can't change your child's genetic makeup, you have a lot of influence over how your teen comes to view his or her body. Here are some ways you can help children and teens:
Accept your children no matter what they weigh. Help them understand that all bodies are unique. Stress that the person is important, rather than what they look like.
Help children appreciate the ways in which television, websites, advertisements, social media, etc. distort the diversity of human body types and imply that a slender body means beauty, power, excitement, and sexuality.
Do not promote the erroneous belief that thinness and weight loss are the ideal and that being large, having body fat, and/or weight gain indicate laziness or poor health.
Be aware of the self-consciousness, shame, and anxiety you may create when you comment openly on your child’s, or another person’s body shape and weight.
Avoid rewarding or punishing children with food, or using food to soothe difficult emotions, as in, “I know you’re sad about losing your hamster. Let’s go get some ice cream to help cheer you up.”
Trust your children’s appetites; do not limit their food intake. Conversely, do not force them to eat when they are not hungry. If your child’s appetite seems extreme in either direction, see your health care provider for an evaluation.
Accept your own shape and weight, including your right to engage in and enjoy a variety of activities, such as swimming, dancing, and yoga, regardless of your appearance.
Avoid “fat talk”, dieting talk, and critical comments about your own body.
Avoid categorizing foods as “good” or “safe” vs. “bad” or “dangerous.”
Practice nonjudgmental reflective listening, rather than lecturing, so that your children will always feel that they can come to you with their problems and concerns. (See the "General Parenting" section of my Reading List for books that cover this topic).
Adapted from material by Micheal P. Levine, Ph.D., and Margo D. Maine, Ph.D., and the National Eating Disorders Association.