What ought one to do if a child says they are obese? Treating the issue with the wrong attitude can be dangerous

We live in a time when children are confronted from an early age by what one should look like, how much one should weigh, what one should wear, and so on. The pursuit of perfection can thus become toxic for a child, but as we all know it is just as unhealthy to pretend that being overweight is okay. So how do you deal with your child saying “I'm fat”?

Parents portal states that according to a recent survey, up to 34% of girls under the age of 5 limit their eating so that they do not gain weight. What is even more interesting, up to 50% of 6- to 8-year-old girls think they could weigh less, and up to one-third of boys of the same age think the same. 

How ought one best to approach the issue?

Build healthy eating habits

First of all, it is necessary to distinguish whether a child is really overweight or not. If they are, forbidding them from eating or forcing them to engage in physical activity is not the right way. They might feel embarrassed and, in addition, they might build resistance to developing a healthy lifestyle that persists into adulthood.

So what to do then? Parents should strive to ensure that replacing harmful habits with healthy ones is nonviolent and natural. So, for example, make sure that instead of sweets, you have healthy food and snacks at home. Also guide the child to be physically active, to be mentally well and to have enough sleep. As dietitian Maryann Jacobsen says, where they follow these principles, the weight of the child tends to stabilise at a value appropriate to their age and height. 

Talk openly about it at home.

In some families the conversation about various things is completely open, in other cases it is not and for individual members it is taboo to discuss topics such as money or different problems, which may include being overweight. This is often the case, for example, in families where one of the parents is also obese, and it is very uncomfortable to talk about this topic. This can often be why they avoid it and pretend that their child's weight is fine. But there is no point in trying not to talk about it, as the child will still notice everything as they get older. 

Another great thing you can do in this area is try not to talk about being overweight as something terrible. For example, don't talk constantly in front of your child about how uncomfortable you feel when looking in the mirror, how much extra weight you have, or what remorse you have for eating. cakes. Instead, tell them how great you feel after exercise, or how delicious a particular healthy dinner was. This makes it much easier for them to learn healthy habits. 

What to do if your child still thinks along these lines despite your best efforts to dissuade them?

It may also happen that your child will talk about being "fat" in cases where this is demonstrably untrue. How ought one to respond to that? First of all, especially when it comes to younger children, it is necessary to talk to them about whether they understand the meaning of the word and how they actually mean it. You may find that your kid just misunderstands the meaning.

But if the child really means it, discuss with them in a supportive manner to find out how they have arrived at such a point of view. You can tell them that you are very sorry that they think so and that you need them to help you understand why this is so. For example, girls may have seen in the media that ‘Slim’ refers only to a woman with a flat belly and thighs that do not touch. Here it is necessary to explain to the child that some standards of beauty are very far from reality. As with everything, then, healthy communication can solve a lot of problems.