Posts Tagged ‘body image’

Are you concerned about childhood obesity and depression. If you are worried that your child might be suffering from depression due to being overweight it may be a medical issue which needs to be addressed. You should always seek professional medical advice if you are concerned about this. Even if you are concerned that your child is suffering from depression for reasons unrelated to being overweight it is important to seek medical advice.

Unfortunately, childhood obesity and depression go hand in hand. We all know how cruel children can be, even children who are not overweight will be told they are fat and labelled as a ‘fatty’. This is especially true of children who prove themselves sensitive to this type of teasing. It is unfortunate but true that children LIKE pushing one anothers buttons. Even those who hate being teased will tease others because they just don’t grasp the concept of treating other people the way they would like to be treated. If course, if a child is overweight then the taunts they receive increase in frequency and can eventually destroy their self confidence and potentially cause depression.

A depressed child will exhibit many symptoms, including but not limited to; not wanting to play outdoors, binge eating unhealthy foods, not wanting to eat, bursting into tears at the slightest provocation and being overly self conscious. In extreme cases they may even give up the will to live. Older children and teens may even attempt suicide to escape a life they view as unbearable. Even death is a more pleasant prospect than life.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this kind of issue only affects adults. Yes, it is probably more common in adults but children suffer too. Just look at the suicide rate among teenagers. Sure, the issues and stresses they face may seem so much less important than ours, but they are just as important to THEM! I’m sure you remember situations as a child that mortified you and made you feel really bad. Maybe your supposed best friend tattled a really embarassing secret around the school. Or maybe your love interest boasted to their friends about having sex with you. These situations are majorly upsetting to young people. For an overweight child, the constant attacks on their self esteem can become overwhelming.

So if you are concerned that your child may be depressed they should be seen by a physician or school counsellor who will examine the reasons for their depression. Hopefully they won’t need medication but some children do. Once you’ve dealt with the emotional aspect of the depression you need to address the root cause of the depression. If you don’t address the cause it is like putting a band-aid on a deep cut that requires stitches and expecting it to heal. The same is true for children who are suffering childhood obesity and depression.

Medication is like a band-aid, it addresses the superficial symptoms but until the eating and exercise habits are changed and the weight is lost nothing will change.

If your child is overweight or obese then you have the power to change what they eat. Yes they may be binge eating or a secret eater but you can still make some changes to see the problem changed. Have you ever see the television program ‘You are what you eat’? English nutritionist Gillian McKeith addresses the unhealthy eating habits of obese individuals and families. One of the things Gillian does is to go through the pantry and remove all the unhealthy foods and replace them with healthy foods. This is something you may need to do, remove the processed foods, cakes, cookies, crisps, sweets, chocolates etc until your child has learned to eat and appreciate healthy foods. Doing this will also stop them taking those things secretly, they can’t do that if there is none in the house!

Another benefit of removing junk foods from your childs diet is that it frequently causes a significant improvement in behavior. Here in Australia, there was a primary school in Queensland that banned all sugary and processed foods from the canteen and childrens lunch boxes during school hours. Within one week, almost all behavioral issues in students were resolved, fights, bullying, temper tantrums etc came to a virtual standstill. The children behaved better and focussed better in the classroom and over time the academic results of the school improved. The results of this experiment caused many parents to ban these products in the home also. I know that when my daughter consumes red food coloring she becomes unmanageable, defiant, bad tempered and even aggressive. The reason for these behavioral changes is the artificial additives found in processed foods.

It is also important that you spend time with your child discussing their feelings. They need to know that they can talk to you when they feel negative about a situation and that you will respond constructively to the issue.

Overweight or obese children are more likely to be bullied in the school environment so you may need to discuss the issue with the school principle and your child’s class teacher. If they know about the issue, and know specific children that are being cruel, they can watch for it. Some teachers are more helpful than others. But remember, if the teasing is caused by them being overweight then you need to consult your doctor for help with how to change the eating and exercise habits of your child in order for them to lose weight.

Something else that can help with childhood obesity and depression is to get your child involved in exercise. It may be impossible to motivate them to exercise on their own but if you get involved, go for a walk with them, play wii sports with them, put on a cd and dance with them etc. Anything that will get them up and moving.

Exercise doesn’t only improve fitness and tone muscles, it also releases ENDORPHINS. Endorphins are hormones produced by the brain that reduce pain and improve mood. In effect they are the bodys natural aspirin and anti depressant. Have you ever wondered why when you feel better after you exercise? This is the reason. This fact alone should encourage you to encourage your family to be active.

It is possible to help your depressed children. Here is a summary of the things you can do.

• Seek professional medical advice
• Talk to your child and find out what is making them depressed.
• Help them change their eating habits to lose weight and reduce peer teasing
• Encourage them to exercise as this will stimulate endorphin production and help them lose weight

With your help your child can overcome childhood obesity and depression!

Are you concerned about negative body image and eating disorders in teenagers? Do you suspect that your teen has stopped eating because they perceive themselves as overweight? Do they talk about diets or teenage diet plans or other ways to lose weight? Are you finding food hidden in their closet? Be aware! All of these things can be a sign that there is an issue with body image and eating disorders. It may not be a passing phase. Your teen could potentially be heading for some serious health issues. This post was created to help you understand how you can help them.

Check out this post about How to help your child develop a healthy body image.

If your teen does need to lose weight you should keep in mind that many teenage diet plans are potentially dangerous to their health. Especially if they are the ones controlling it without understanding necessary nutritional requirements. Due to this danger you should encourage your teen to consult the family doctor before going on a diet. Most doctors will resist putting teenagers on a diet plan since it is frequently unnecessary. Quite often, the teen is not overweight at all, but they are taking the comments of peers and the unrealistic role models presented by the media of celebrities to heart. If your teen does require a diet plan it’s important to do it properly with medical advice.

Teens are deeply influenced by peer pressure, and it can have an extremely negative effect on their body image of themself. Many perfectly healthy teens obsess about weight issues that don’t exist. This can lead to them taking radical measures to change themselves… including starving themselves.

The best teenage diet plan will incorporate both exercise and all the nutrients required to build strong bones and maintain good physical health. If your teen requires a diet plan, talk to a medical professional, either a doctor, dietician or nutritionist. These people can help you and your teenager create a healthy teenage diet plan.

Teenagers commonly do carry a little extra weight. Most of them lose it as they mature. It is important that your teen understand both this, and the fact that everyone is different and should not be the same. There are many body shapes and types and your teen needs to be familiar with this.

If their best friend weighs 105 lbs doesn’t mean they should be that weight, it may not even be healthy or attractive for them to be that weight. There are several factors that contribute toward a healthy weight range including; height, bone size, body shape and family history.

For those who are concerned about body image and eating disorders, a good teenage diet plan will include very few junk foods or none at all. While these foods include some beneficial nutrients, they also have loads of empty calories and fat. Overindulging in junk food at any age increases the risk of weight related diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Conversely, their diet should also include plenty of fruit and vegetables. These are low in fat and provide plenty of nutrients for healthy, growing bodies. Encourage your teenager to pack healthy snacks like fruit, nuts and vegetables for school etc. Having healthy snacks on hand reduces the temptation to purchase junk food when they get hungry.

Another essential element of a good teenage diet plan is exercise. Frequently, exercise is all that’s needed. When your teenager exercises regularly they build lean muscle and lean muscle burns more calories than other types of tissue.

A healthy teenage diet plan contains lean meats. Keep them away from large portions of red meat because it is high in fat and is harder to digest. Encourage them to eat more skinless chicken and fish as these are lower in fat and will help them lose weight.

If you teen does need to lose weight then encourage them to drink low fat milk as it contains less fat than whole milk and still provides the necessary calcium to build strong bones. They should also replace soda drinks with water, the same if they drink a lot of fruit juice as these are high in sugar and can contribute to weight gain. If they don’t like drinking water explain that it helps flush toxins out of the body and will therefore help clear their skin and reduce the severity of acne. This alone is enough to change the attitude of most teenagers to drinking water.

Once again, never place your teenager on a diet yourself and watch for signs that they are trying to lose weight themselves. See your doctor if you are concerned about your teenagers body image and eating disorders.

Body image is a learned behavior. It’s learned from society, peers and family and it stays with us for life.

The effect of society on body image

The benchmark here is the fashion and entertainment industries. When you see fashion models are they realistically proportioned people? NO!!! The vast majority of them fit an extremely narrow segment of society… those with an hourglass figure. Most female models in particular are size 4-8… despite the average size being 12-14. Keep in mind that these girls are most probably underweight. If we compare ourselves to them, of course we end up feeling like big fat blimps!

It’s important to teach your children that very few people could ever fit this ideal since it is based on the classic hourglass figure and only 5% of people have this figure type. For anyone else to reach these proportions it would be physically impossible, not to mention extremely unhealthy. If your child is in their mid teens it’s probably a good idea to help them identify their own body type to help avoid comparisons. If they DO have an hourglass figure it’s probably best to focus on healthy body size… you might want to calculate their BMI with them. To learn how to do this visit How to calculate BMI

The effect of peers on body image

Children are extremely impressionable and dependent upon the approval of others. So when their peers say they are fat, ugly or whatever, children take it to heart. Of course, children don’t have the maturity to understand what is and isn’t a healthy size. Combine that with the fact that children can be extremely cruel because they haven’t learned to treat others as they want to be treated. These factors mean a child can receive some extremely negative messages about their body at a time when they desperately need positive affirmations.

The effect of family on body image

While most of the blame for body image issues goes to the fashion and entertainment industries, what children see at home can also have a negative impact. For example, when we make negative comments about our body our children hear that and trust our opinion… we’re their parents after all, adults who must therefore be right about these things… NOT!!! Children use our opinions to create their own perceptions of appropriate body size. Thus, the more negative we are, the more negative they learn to be. This relates to any part of the body, whether it be our bottom, thighs, love handles, face, arms, neck, whatever part of our body we don’t like. Unfortunately, children learn from that.

Constantly talking about being ‘on a diet’ or ‘trying to lose weight’ has the same effect. Think of ‘diet’ as a dirty word! Again, children learn from this. All they have is inaccurate perceptions provided by other people. Without educated knowledge of what is and isn’t a healthy body size it can have a very detrimental effect on their body image.

It is important to educate children about their body as they approach those turbulent teenage years when they start to take control of their own lives and truly become an individual. But how do we do this so they will develop a healthy body image?

Here are a few tips:

1. Avoid making negative comments about YOUR body in front of your child, even if you think they’re not around.
2. Switch negative comments to positive by changing the ‘I’m on a diet’ line to ‘I’m being health conscious’ (being on a diet is negative, being health conscious is positive). Don’t mention trying to lose weight especially if you’re only trying to lose a small amount
3. Avoid making negative comments about their body like ‘gosh you’re getting chubby’ because if their peers are making comments you’ll just be reinforcing the negative body image
4. Help your child understand that society has an unrealistic ideal because they focus on only one body type when there are many body types (and show them those body types). Teach them how trying to conform to society’s unrealistic ideal is not only impossibe, but extremely unhealthy when they don’t have that body type.
5. Help your child understand that their peers are just spouting what they see in the fashion and entertainment industry when they make negative comments about one anothers bodies.
6. If they need to lose weight, don’t tell them you’re putting them on a diet, just substitute some healthy options like fruit for high energy, high sugar, high fat content snacks.
7. Most importantly – Make sure you provide positive affirmations about their physical appearance like; you have a good figure, you’re well built, you’re pretty/handsome etc