Passing along your body image issues to your children...

Did anyone see this article in the NY Times magazine this past weekend? It talks about how obesity and eating disorders are both serious threats to kids. My mom sent it to me, which I thought was a little weird, since she passed on ALL of her body image problems to me

But it raises an interesting question:

How DO we as parents help our kids have a healthy relationship with food without them swinging to one extreme or the other?

Re: Passing along your body image issues to your children...

good question. Im definitely not an expert, but DH and I like to eat natural, organic food and we plan to teach our daughter to eat healthy, not to be thin, but to be healthy. We are not into no-fat/diet stuff at all, were more into the non-processed stuff. We plan to teach her about moderation, good foods that are filled with vitamins to make your body strong. We both really like to cook and I bake a lot. I hope to make cooking fun so that she is interested and open to new tastes/trying things. We do treat ourselves to stuff often enough but the food in our house is healthier. Im hoping to be able to teach her not to deprive herself from stuff, but to eat it in moderation because it's not that healthy.

Re: Passing along your body image issues to your children...

I think we pass everything along to our kids. We are their main influences, esp. at younger ages. As parents we help shape everything about them.

My mother is VERY heavy and has horrible eating habits. She only recently stopped eating fast food twice a day, every day. All she drinks is soda, no milk, water or juice. Most of her food is processed and she has no clue or interest in learning what a well balanced diet looks like. Growing up she did feed us some vegetables, we had cousins close in age so we got plenty of exercise running around and playing. I had so many issues with food and body image during my teens and early twenties. I still struggle with both. I went to the other extreme and at a point only ate steamed/grilled fresh foods. I exercised like a maniac and will say I was in fantastic physical shape. However, it consumed my life. With time I learned to have what I feel is a healthier balance. I get moderate exercise, eat healthy and occasionally indulge. I hope this means my daughters will learn healthy habits but who knows what they will take for their experiences growing up. We each internalize things differently.