Dying to be thin

shakybabe

There's a program on ITV tonight at 7.30 (UK TV) investigating kids as young as 8 wanting to be thin and watching their weight. Repeated on ITV+1 an hour later.

AwesomelyAmber

It is soooo sad. My son is 8 and you should hear the way that the kids in his school talk about each other... or maybe worse? Themselves. :frown:

dirtbikegirl5

My girls are 7 and they told me that one of their classmates told them that she is on a diet. I lost it.

I have body image issues, but I always avoid saying anything negative like "oh, look at my humongous a**" or "I am so fat". It really does get sucked into those little minds. I come from a long line of anorexics - female family members were anorexic even when there wasn't a good knowledge of what they were doing - so I have heard negative talk, seen laxative use, over exercising, etc. I suffered with eating disorders from a very early age.

shakybabe

I'm 42 and when I was a kid, we never thought about diets and celebrities, we were out on bikes or skates or playing cowboys and indians.. lol!

Even when I went up to 16 st I didn't know about carbs, and stuff and effects different foods had.. A diet was boring, it was eating lettuce leaves all the time. I cut out sweets but I still had takeaways and had loads of temptation then as lived on edge of town with a road that had about 7 of them on it!

It's only this time around I've got into counting calories on everything, weighing food, dropping wheat etc.w. as thinking of going vegetarian or vegan for a week to see if can drop about 5lb in a week or something and its cos of all diet programs I find myself watching biggest loser, fat families and love supersize V superskinny etc for tips.

My god daughters are 13 and 15 and very thin, eldest one went vegetarian a few years back as she was apparently told she was a bit chubby from some kids at school.

I don't have my own kids so no-one to copy my diet.. my dogs not interested in salads.. only sausages... lol!

I do think kids are more vicious these days, when i was a kid worse you got called was stupid or dopey etc but kids are really nasty bullies these days, and its usually kids who spend all their time on violent video games, as they have evolved to be more graphic etc.. it was Alex Kidd on Sega when I was young.. lol!

Probably internet and kids been able to surf without parents watching.. about celebrities and the diets they are on and how much they weigh etc.

Tink_89

I have set this to record. It is really sad but should be an interesting programme to watch.

RaeLB

when i was 18 i worked at a camp
one day i was watching a 6 year old girl & a 7 year old girl
we were sitting outside and the 6 yr old sticks out her belly and says to the 7 yr old i'm soo fat! the 7 yr old i was like me too! i want to get rid of my tummy! broke my heart.
but really it shouldn't be so shocking, teenagers and adults are striving so hard for the ideal body and children are not sheltered from this culture. whether they get it from family, friends, the media, they are exposed to it
they see everyone else doing it... it's up to adults to set a good example... unfortunately we adults have failed them. we allow this obsession with specific beauty ideals to go on