The Heavy - Seven year old on a diet?

[Randianne]

Dara-Lynn Weiss wrote an article for Vogue last year about putting her seven year old on a diet. Now she's got a book out about the same thing. I couldn't find the original article, but this one is about her and her book:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/dara-lynn-weiss-the-heavy_n_2475349.html

This scares me so much. I hate the constant scrutiny our kids are under about their weight. I know obesity is a huge problem, but I hate the pressure to be thin on kids so young.

Quinn is almost ten months old, and I already hate her weigh ins at the doctor. At six days old, we were told that she had lost too much weight and we needed to bring her back for a weight check. At eight days old, the doctor scolded us because she had put on weight too quickly. You know what I changed? Nothing. I was breastfeeding on demand. My milk had come in when she was three days old. I had absolutely no idea why she had put on 'too much weight' in all of two days. How does a eight day old put on 'too much' anyway?

I can't imagine putting my kid on a diet at seven years old. If she's overweight, why not encourage exercise and eat healthier? And then to put the little girl in a magazine like vogue where all the models are airbrushed and anorexic anyway. Unbelievable.

This quote is from the original article about the girl's sixteen pound weight loss. It broke my heart:

"When I ask her if she likes how she looks now, if she’s proud of what she’s accomplished, she says yes…Even so, the person she used to be still weighs on her. Tears of pain fill her eyes as she reflects on her yearlong journey. “That’s still me,” she says of her former self. “I’m not a different person just because I lost sixteen pounds.” I protest that, indeed, she is different. At this moment, that fat girl is a thing of the past. A tear rolls down her beautiful cheek, past the glued-in feather. “Just because it’s in the past,” she says, “doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”"

What do you think? Are any other mothers of little girls as concerned about this as I am? I know it affects boys too, but the pressure on girls to be thin their entire lives is absolutely insane. I don't really feel like this woman's extreme approach to her daughter's weight does anything but teach her at seven years old that her self worth is connected to a scale.

 

[RaspberryK]

It's a hard one! I don't think I agree with how she went about it, but my 9yo nephew started to go to a diet class. He was chubby, he lost weight by healthy eating and learning moderation and it was him that controlled it.
I think the quote at the end is very sad!
X

 

[midori1999]

I don't think children should even know the word diet in that context.I don't think they should think there are 'bad' foods either, because no food is bad as part of a healthy diet.

The Mother in the article should be ashamed, she let her daughter get overweight and then enforced her own unhealthy attitude on to her.

Diets don't work. Not long term. That's why Weight Watchers, Slimming World etc are such big business.

 

[Scottish mum]

If it's for health reasons then fair enough however I hope this women hasn't done this because she's a career in fashion and feels presure for her lo to look good then that to me would be wrong! X

 

[robinator]

I don't think children should even know the word diet in that context.I don't think they should think there are 'bad' foods either, because no food is bad as part of a healthy diet.

The Mother in the article should be ashamed, she let her daughter get overweight and then enforced her own unhealthy attitude on to her.

Diets don't work. Not long term. That's why Weight Watchers, Slimming World etc are such big business.

I agree. The mother admittedly fed her daughter as much as she wanted and didn't make wise food choices. She set the tone and then changed her mind.

It's good that she realized she had set her daughter down an unhealthy path and wanted to change it. But like you said, it should not be considered a "diet", but a change in food and exercise. There are ways to help your kid get healthy without putting a label on it.

 

[PitaKat]

A kid can be in the overweight category right before they hit a growth spurt. I think if a parent is concerned their kiddo is too heavy, they need to enact a family-wide lifestyle change, with all eating better and getting more active, not making one child go on a diet

I think it's not right that the mom has written a book and will be making money off this.

 

[Eternal]

If one of my children became over weight I would do something, but not approach it like that, it's should be a whole fami,y life style choice and I garentee the way that mother is appraising it that child will have a very unheathy relationship with food.

She needs to change the families diet and become more active, and allow for occasional treats, because its cruel to allow one child and not the other, of she doesn't allow the child to have an odd treat then she will binge when she gets the opportunity. Whereas if she changes the lifestyle of the whole family, she will grow up understanding responsible food intake and the importanceof exercise, which is often more the problem that children are not active enough.

 

[lhancock90]

Shameful
Instead of making it about being "fat" she should have promoted a change of lifestyle.

 

[Noelle610]

Wow, this is awful. I think it's important that parents encourage their children to eat healthy, but this is far beyond that.

I also think it's terrible how differently her son was treated in comparisson to her daughter.