Why is it taboo to tell a girl that she should lose weight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

HA! Well, I hope you at least had mustard instead of mayo or you're headed down a scary road.

I am not the PP, but if putting mayo on a sandwich qualifies as a "scary road" for you, I would suggest that you have some real food issues.

It is those food issues that you want to avoid placing upon your children.

[Anonymous]

Amen to that!

[Anonymous]

Too many women project their own adult weight images onto children leading to big problems. Reading height and growth percentiles for infants, toddlers, and small children as if they were meant for adults is misguided at best, dangerous at worse. These are samplings based on a one point in time collection source. Peds measure and watch growth with eye toward the CURVE and rate of change not as a weight watchers scale to intervene against future obesity.

Healthy food options and good physical activity are critical to young children. The height and growth % whatever it is is not a good indicator of this health. There are plenty of children who some of the more misguided posters would consider great because they are thin or "normal" who are more at risk for obesity based on their parent's food choices. Conversely, there are children who these same misguided people may consider chubby who do have healthy eating and exercise habits and will even out over time and then maintain an adult healthy weight.

Adult approaches such as diets..which BTW do not seem to work for most adults, set children up for a life time of failure. A mom who is calling her young child overweight and constantly placing him/her on a diet is doing more harm than good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

HA! Well, I hope you at least had mustard instead of mayo or you're headed down a scary road.

I am not the PP, but if putting mayo on a sandwich qualifies as a "scary road" for you, I would suggest that you have some real food issues.

It is those food issues that you want to avoid placing upon your children.

Oh, good Lord. That was meant to be as tongue in cheek as I could have possibly been. I thought the turkey sandwich segue was hilarious, and I was feeling punchy after being up so late last night. As soon as I hit submit I wished I could have taken it back because I was afraid people might take me seriously.

[Anonymous]

Someone said "the girl already knows she is overweight". Trust me, she does, in this world of bizarre fat or the bizarre thin. Frankly, all of this sounds more like your issues than hers. Your need to have a come to Jesus with this kid or mom is out of line. Even if she were 300 lbs, what are you going to do by talking about it? Supporting a healthy life style for the family is all that can be done and that is ONLY if the mom and dad and whoever else is on board with the WHOLE family getting physical and eating well. But is 10 ys old. Let's see if she grows out of this...geez.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

HA! Well, I hope you at least had mustard instead of mayo or you're headed down a scary road.

I am not the PP, but if putting mayo on a sandwich qualifies as a "scary road" for you, I would suggest that you have some real food issues.

It is those food issues that you want to avoid placing upon your children.

Oh, good Lord. That was meant to be as tongue in cheek as I could have possibly been. I thought the turkey sandwich segue was hilarious, and I was feeling punchy after being up so late last night. As soon as I hit submit I wished I could have taken it back because I was afraid people might take me seriously.

I didn't, I got a chuckle out of it I thought it was a great response

[Anonymous]

This issue seems to cause a flaming thread.
I am concerned about the anger that comes with the responses. There are so many misconceptions about ideal weight it is scary.
I am a health professional, and I must say that those Chinese gymnasts looked healthy. Anorexia would cause so much weakness that there is no way those vaults and tumbling runs could be completed. They are strong. They will go on to have children even though the exercise will delay menses and puberty. If they keep active, they reduce their chances of cancer and heart disease. They seem to have great self esteem and have received more attention than the average Chinese teen. Their accomplishments are noteworthy.
That said, there is no good way to dance around the obesity crisis in developed countries (even in China). It can rob some kids of their childhoods when they can not participate in sports.
Unfortunately, there is no good consensus on how to handle childhood obesity. Most of the studies about emotional harm are retrospective and do not adequately address the issue of how best to approach a child who over eats. Until we are sure that anorexia is caused by being asked to lose weight, we will not really know. There are many other theories about its roots including genetics, and biochemical imbalances. In retrospective studies a subject can be talked into believing that a comment about her pudginess propelled her towards and eating disorder.
However, with any body issue in the teen or preteen age, whether it be height, weight (thin or obese), acne, hair, braces, glasses, adults need to be cautious and sensitive.
What we do know is that poor eating habits in the home lead to obesity, and it is up to the parents of these children to take full control of the foods that enter their homes. It is also the parents responsibility to decide on portions, quality, and food groups. I would have to say that when a child is obese, the parent's habits play a huge (biggest) role.

[Anonymous]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/61366.php

[Anonymous]

The above article has some insight as to where research is going with this disorder.

[Anonymous]

This issue seems to cause a flaming thread.
I am concerned about the anger that comes with the responses. There are so many misconceptions about ideal weight it is scary.
I am a health professional, and I must say that those Chinese gymnasts looked healthy. Anorexia would cause so much weakness that there is no way those vaults and tumbling runs could be completed. They are strong. They will go on to have children even though the exercise will delay menses and puberty. If they keep active, they reduce their chances of cancer and heart disease. They seem to have great self esteem and have received more attention than the average Chinese teen. Their accomplishments are noteworthy.
That said, there is no good way to dance around the obesity crisis in developed countries (even in China). It can rob some kids of their childhoods when they can not participate in sports.
Unfortunately, there is no good consensus on how to handle childhood obesity. Most of the studies about emotional harm are retrospective and do not adequately address the issue of how best to approach a child who over eats. Until we are sure that anorexia is caused by being asked to lose weight, we will not really know. There are many other theories about its roots including genetics, and biochemical imbalances. In retrospective studies a subject can be talked into believing that a comment about her pudginess propelled her towards and eating disorder.
However, with any body issue in the teen or preteen age, whether it be height, weight (thin or obese), acne, hair, braces, glasses, adults need to be cautious and sensitive.
What we do know is that poor eating habits in the home lead to obesity, and it is up to the parents of these children to take full control of the foods that enter their homes. It is also the parents responsibility to decide on portions, quality, and food groups. I would have to say that when a child is obese, the parent's habits play a huge (biggest) role.

I don't think that anybody is disputing the health issues that can develop with obesity. But since you mentioned the Chinese gymnast thread, it is a health issue of another sort when an adult person, presumably one who is a parent, asserts that a 98 pound gymnast is mutton (as it was stated in that thread) and considers a pre-pubscent 68 pound child to be more physically ideal. As a health professional, I'm sure you can see the dangers in that as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/61366.php

I had always suspected that there was more to anorexia than body image issues. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

What concerns me is the attitude on some posts that seem to imply THIN=SICK. That is unfair. Some have even implied overweight means healthy.

[Anonymous]

If the little girl is fat, then the mom is the one feeding her the garbage that is making her fat which is why she is avoiding it.

There is no need to diet or even discuss diet, but the mom needs to make better shopping decisions and pack the girl's school lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What concerns me is the attitude on some posts that seem to imply THIN=SICK. That is unfair. Some have even implied overweight means healthy.

I haven't read that into these posts. I think too skinny = sick and too fat = sick, but there is a wide range in the middle that is healthy. That is consistent with the BMI ratings for kids (under 5% is underweight, over 95% is overweight, 85-95% is at risk for becoming overweight). Also, a lot of people are applying what they see in their three year olds to a question about 10 year olds. That's kind of an apples to oranges discussion. Some issues are the same--parents are still largely the controllers of what these kids eat and how much exercise they get. But a lot of three year olds have not completely thinned out yet AND are in no way body conscious yet. 10 year olds certainly no longer have "baby fat", but then again are about to head into a big growth spurt (and are body conscious on all kinds of levels--not just about weight). In either case, it's up to the parents to make changes that will positively affect the child.

[Anonymous]

At what age should a parent address the issue?