Edward Abramson, Ph.D.

Here’s a helpful article from iVillage that has 10 tips for parents to prevent their daughters from developing an eating disorder: http://www.ivillage.com/dying-be-thin/152420?p=2

I’m back. I had an accident on my motorcycle – the first in 20+ years riding. It wasn’t my fault but that didn’t make the injury or subsequent surgery less painful. Now I can type so it’s back to work on It’s NOT Just Baby Fat.

We’ve been reading about the risks associated with childhood obesity. Michele Obama’s efforts to tackle the problem have focused attention school age kids but efforts to combat childhood obesity may need to start earlier. Some recent research suggests that events early in life or during pregnancy can set the stage for later obesity. Currently 10% of children under age 2 are overweight.

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy typically give birth to small babies yet these infants are more likely to become obese later. It’s not clear if this is related to socioeconomic status (both smoking and being overweight are more common among poor and less well educated folks) or if there is an underlying physiological cause. Also, lack of sleep is associated with obesity in kids and adults (more about that in a future post), but the same may be true for babies. The risk for later obesity is greater when a baby sleeps less than 12 hours. Early experiences can also be protective. For example, breast-feeding lowers the risk of later obesity. If future research can identify the risks during pregnancy and the first months of life it may be possible to prevent obesity in childhood and later life.

When adults want to lose weight what do they do? Usually they go on a diet. They get the latest diet book, read an article about dieting in a magazine, or join a dieting program. When those same adults are concerned about their kid’s weight the natural tendency is to put the child on a diet too. This is a big mistake. Several studies following teenage girls over several years found that dieters gained more weight than equally heavy girls who didn’t go on a diet.

Stop for a moment and consider what it would be like to be a kid on a diet. You are in the school cafeteria. All your friends are having pizza, what are you going to do? On the way home they stop at 7-11 and have a Slurpee. Pizza and Slurpees aren’t on your diet. If you stick to the diet you’ll feel left out, your friends might tease you, and you feel that it’s not fair. Your cravings for the pizza, Slurpee or any forbidden food increases. Sooner or later you’re going to give in, and if the cravings are strong enough, you might binge and get the supersized Slurpee. Now, how do you feel? Guilty and maybe ashamed; you’re certainly not going to tell your parents.

As this process continues the parents become increasingly frustrated because their child is not losing weight while the child becomes more secretive about eating. No one is happy and the child is gaining weight. It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead, banish the word diet from your vocabulary. Whenever you discuss weight and eating with your child, focus on healthy eating rather than dieting, losing weight, or being overweight. In future blog postings I’ll have some practical tips for encouraging healthy eating and my forthcoming book, It’s NOT Just Baby Fat will describe a complete program for preventing childhood obesity.