For my overweight child...

mmtiernan

1.) You do NOT want to be teaching your daughter how to diet at this age. That's the LAST thing she needs. What other 11-year-old reads nutrition labels?! Or makes food plans?! Oh my God; that's ridiculous.

If you re-read my post, you will notice that I did NOT use the word "diet". Teaching children how to read labels and plan menus is not ridiculous. The intention of learning how to read nutrition labels and how to plan menus is to teach my daughter how to choose healthy, wholesome foods that are nutritious for her body and not garbage. My daughter has been doing this for the last three years and is now not only able to create a healthy menu and cook the meals herself, she can also shop smart and stay within a food budget. These are basic life skills that most of her 15-year old friends do not have!

We also do not buy treats and keep them in the house. We go out for ice cream or some other treat once or at most twice per month and it is consumed outside of the house. My daughter does not feel in any way deprived or restricted. Quite the contrary.

ImmortalWings17

Teaching her what is in food leads to her being able to control her body and its weight. You don't need to tell her she's fat. She needs to know where and who she is though. Trust me. If she's like I was, she'll know that what your doing is for a own good. I also think that the setting an example is good too. Again it's really great to be able to control your weight, so it doesn't get in the way of finding out who you are and what you want. Hope this makes sense and helps.

TheMaidOfAstolat

Teaching her what is in food leads to her being able to control her body and its weight. You don't need to tell her she's fat. She needs to know where and who she is though. Trust me. If she's like I was, she'll know that what your doing is for a own good. I also think that the setting an example is good too. Again it's really great to be able to control your weight, so it doesn't get in the way of finding out who you are and what you want. Hope this makes sense and helps.

Compleatly true. Also, for those that believe that an ED only starts as being food/weight related...it's not true. I am still a recovering anorexic. My anorexia was brought on by lack of control....not anything to do with food or weight. I was perfectly healthy and at the right weight at the time. It was simply a matter of needing control over something in my life that no one else could tell me what to do and when.

elainegsd

I've read through most of the other posts here, and here's what I think -- coming from a 16-year-old girl who was probably close to 300 pounds when she was 11. I've got some recent experience.

1.)... What other 11-year-old reads nutrition labels?! Or makes food plans?! Oh my God; that's ridiculous.

LOL. The smart ones read the labels well before 11. My nieces and nephews range in age from 9 to19, all read and understand nutrition labels and have since they first could read. I was reading the labels from the time I was 6 or 7, but didn't understand what I should be looking for (e.g. What is a reasonable number of calories for someone my age/size? How much of those cals should be from protein? What types of foods have more bang for the caloric buck? If someone had explained that to me when I was 11, it would have been wonderful! One of my nephews walked into McDs at about age 8, looked at the menu and asked his mom if he could have a salad. Now THAT is one empowered kid!