Call to All Females- Please Listen.

You mentioned girls as young as 6 or 7. Yes and it is amazing how the outside influences can be. My daughter who is now 19 and struggles to keep weight on because she is naturally thin and has stomach issues, started hearing it really early. Although eating disorders are usually about being thin, here is something people forget about.

Age 2 - Dr asks "does she eat" why yes she ate 3/4 of a hamburger on the way over here, but her favorite foods are broccoli and salad (no dressing)
Age 7 - friend tells her she is too skinny
Age 7 - Second grade teacher scrutinizing snacks and kids diets telling them to eat healthy but won't allow my daughter to have chocolate milk, tells her to bring juice. Also rewarded the kids with yankee doodle cakes but no candy or cake allowed for snack?
Age 8 - She is checking nutrition labels for fat content (learned at school)
Age 10 - she is in the elevator with 2 friends and one mom who says that her daughter is fat, the third girl is perfect and my kid is too skinny
Age 11 - she is asked at a BBQ how to lose weight by a kid 2 years older, my daughters plate 1/2 veggies the other girls hotdog and chips no veggies
Age 14 - I have a fat stomach
Age 15 she is a dancer the teacher tells them they are all fat
Age 16 dance teacher says I am sick of bellies that hang over booty shorts and jiggly thighs
Age 17 - She loses 1 lb and goes in her room hysterical crying, same dance teacher also comments on how her measurements went down

Fast forward to today, she is vegan for health reasons and her stomach problems are so much better, but she is 5'4" and only 102 lbs. I worry, but I know she is eating and trying to eat more. I am more concerned about muscle and being healthy. I have struggled with weight and sometimes say I am fat, but I wear shorts and a bathing suit every summer. I point out that I want to lose weight the healthy way, eating good food and I have always worked out.

When daughter was real little I told her you need to eat veggies before you can have junk food because Veggies help you grow big, but cookies will keep you small. We need to change the messages that are out there overall. Its not just our moms that do it to us, or our dads, its all those teachers and other kids who have moms making stupid comments.

FYI, my daughter is seeing a counselor at school and has a plan to get an on campus apartment next year so she will have a kitchen and can cook herself better food.

I know many of you will say "your daughter is so lucky she is thin" but she battles with food too. One day she was fat, the next day too skinny, she didn't even know how to handle the messages that the world gave her. She is finally getting to a place where she can feel good about her body again, that is really the heart of the problem, we don't feel good about our bodies.