Eating Disorders, Part 3: The Parent’s Role in Preventing Eating Disorders

This is the last installment of our eating disorder series by guest blogger, Katherine Fowler, and we are ending with prevention.  Next week we will feature a post on the question many parents get asked, but don’t know how to answer.  Join us for an expert perspective on how to handle the tough question–Do You Think I’m Fat?  For now, read on for what you can do to keep your child in a healthy state of mind and body.

Part 2 of this series discussed the warning signs of eating disorders and what to do if you witness them.  This segment will focus on primary prevention, or what you as a parent can do to stop the occurrence of eating disorders before they begin.

Studies have shown that eating disorders do run in families.  Even if you do everything you can to control your child’s environment, he or she still has a chance of developing an eating disorder. So what is a parent to do? It’s impossible to control all the influences outside of your door, but your actions can have an impact.

DO:

• Encourage positive body image.  Be a model of healthy self-esteem.
• Become a critical viewer of the media.
• Choose to talk about yourself with respect and appreciation.
• Choose to tell your child you love him/her for what is inside, not because of how he/she looks.
• Have a neutral view about all foods.
• Allow your child to determine when he/she is full.
• Emphasize positive aspects of healthy eating rather than effects of unhealthy eating.

DON’T:

• Make negative comments about your own or others’ weight.
• Label foods as “good” and “bad”.
• Use food for rewards or punishments.
• Follow fad diets or encourage your child to diet.
• Focus on the calorie content and grams of fat or sugar in foods.
• Restrict sweets and high calorie foods from your child.
• Make your child clean their plate if they are full.

There are 3 major things you need to remember:

1. What you say sticks. You definitely don’t want your comments about food, eating, body weight, shape, or size to affect your child’s self-esteem.
2. Your feeding style is important.  An authoritative feeding/parenting style is associated with preventing childhood obesity and eating disorders and has a “love with limits” approach.  What type of feeder are you, and is it having a positive or negative impact on your child?
3. Family meals matter.  Regular family meals are associated with preventing disordered eating and promote healthier body weight, less behavioral problems, and better grades in school.

To reap the benefits of family meals:

• Make mealtime peaceful. Save arguments, TV, and phone calls for another time.
• Make mealtime fun! Involve kids in planning meals, shopping, and cooking.
• Offer balanced meals. To create balance, serve nutrient dense foods like lean meat, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains in larger quantities and serve less nutrient dense foods like high fat dairy and processed grains in smaller amounts. Offer fried foods and sweets less often.

You have a number of chances to interact with your child each day.  Each is an opportunity for you to promote a confident eater that has a healthy relationship with food.  You can make a difference!

Contributing Author: Katherine Fowler, MS, RD, LDN