7-Year-Old's Diet List: Mom Amy Cheney Finds Daughter's Weight-Loss Notes

[CaptainCourtesy]

One of my specialty areas is in the treatment of eating disorders. I'm seeing it occur in younger and younger kids... some as young as 7. The media and today's culture is often a big culprit. In order to be happy and successful, you MUST look a certain way.

 

[ChrisL]

No kidding - Because the schools and media, etc, have gone totally over the top trying to focus on getting the heavy kids to be skinny again . . . they're working into the brains of the not-heavy kids or the healthy-kids or even the too-skinny kids that they *need to watch what they eat and lose weight*

Not to mention the health-minded moms and dads who show this concern, behavior and even obsessive fear and compulsive activity - without considering how it might be influencing their children. You can't just assume kids will go 'ok - well that's what my Mom does' without wanting or trying to implement it or share it with friends/etc.

This article is about a mother in Australia - but I'm dealing with this issue and my kids (all four) - they all have it in their heads that they're 'fat' or 'at risk of becoming fat' - my daughter always says stuff about 'going on a diet' and 'limiting my intake' and crap. An 8 year old shouldn't even know what the word 'intake' is :roll:

Schools and media have focused on this 'childhood obesity' so much that kids have NO CLUE what is normal, healthy . . . kids shouldn't give a **** about what they LOOK LIKE. It's FINE - perfectly fine for a kid to be a little heavy or chubby, ok. OBESE is a different story altogether - and THAT should be addressed privately within the child's FAMILY and with their PEDIATRICIAN.

Honestly - I'm glad I'm not the only one . . . because I feel my kids are being exposed to thoughts they should never have - and that do *not* apply to them...I struggle to get them to eat ENOUGH food. . . All the time - getting them to consume enough food throughout the day is a arduous task I have to deal with every single day.

The thought never even occurred to me as a child. I never thought I was fat either. I also have to say that when I was in school, there were only a few "fat" kids in school. Now, it seems they are everywhere you look. So I'm kind of torn on the issue. I don't think the children should be denigrated, and I think they should also look at the child's bone structure and how they are built instead of strictly from a BMI type of standpoint. However, I can't deny that there are some children that could actually use the help of a nutritionist.

 

[Green Balls]

Good parenting goes a long way on this issue. Watching TV with your kids lets you see what they are being exposed to. Talking with your kids about what they see on TV not only provides good interaction with your kids, it also allows you to explain things.

Of course, peer pressure is a difficult beast to deal with. Again, the key here is to interact with your child and discuss things, taking the opportunity to turn situations into a teaching moment. It isn't shocking that a 7 year old is worried about their weight. Having good communication might have avoided the situation getting to the point where the child had a diet and exercise plan they created based off hearsay, instead of created with the parent and/or doctor.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

apparently, you do not live in my neck of the woods
here, many people, especially lower income, live to eat
and it shows
unfortunately, it also shows in their kids
[emphasis added by bubba in each category]

Again, if a child is obese, the parent should handle that.
A 7 year old child should not be making a list of approved foods for herself, when she may not be overweight at all.

so, yes harry, that seven year old obese kid needs to go on a diet
and kudos to Michelle Obama for making this one of her outreach issues. our kids need to learn how to maintain a healthy weight thru diet and exercise

i was a fat boy growing up. Mom had donuts and soda waiting for me when i came home from school every day. Dad kept saying, son, you're getting fat ... and my Mom would come right behind him and insist that i was just pleasantly plump, to leave me alone. and i wanted to believe her but in my heart i knew Dad was right
i absolutely hated being a fat boy. to this day, that is who i see when i look in the mirror. but i also did not want to give up those high calorie foods i was used to eating. neither did i want to remain fat. Mom - who was very well intended - enabled my bad food habit. thank goodness i had a PE coach (& JFK's fitness program) who came to the rescue and ran my lard ass off. it took that kind of intervention by the school to set me on the right course

so, spiker, while i agree that healthy kids (girls, mostly), should not worry about their weight, that does not mean you cannot still have a continuing dialogue about what constitutes a healthy diet for them. and if your kids are too heavy, you are doing them no favors condoning it

Yes I was fat between the grades of 4-6.
I grew up though instead of out.
It went away just like that, however I know my situation isn't the same as every other child.

With all that said, if a child is overweight, it should be brought up with the parents when the child goes to the pediatrician.
Little 7 year old kids shouldn't be designing diets for themselves.

This is the same crap that girls in my high school did.
They would be physically within their weight standards for their body/height.

But they would starve themselves, eating only tidbits of food to control hunger pains.
Growing bodies don't need calorie deficient foods when the child is within their weight limits.

 

[Gipper]

Stands to reason that, while a small diet may not be the worst thing, trying to commit to some life-altering system would be moot when you consider that she could be one good growth spurt away from "evening out".

 

[captainawesome]

Stands to reason that, while a small diet may not be the worst thing, trying to commit to some life-altering system would be moot when you consider that she could be one good growth spurt away from "evening out".

Going from eating junk to a good diet of proteins and veggies is a lifestyle change. It is better than tv dinners fast food and doritoes.