Accepting your Body Could Save your Daughter

One of my patients pointed me to this Huffington Post post “How to Talk to Your Daughter About Her Body” after we had spent a session on the same issues. My patient, Bea, a thirty-something single mom, is struggling with her own eating disorder and so wants to protect her three-year old from the same fate. Besides talking about modeling a kind and accepting relationship with her body as this blogger does, we talked about how to move into a relaxed but also organized approach to meals. Ironically Bea was pushing her daughter to eat as many parents of younger children do, “please take another bite for Mommy.” I suggested Bea do her best to offer something that looks like a meal especially at dinner. This is a challenge for single parents who also work full time. Fixing a plate for her daughter that includes a few bites of food mom is eating (Bea is following my food plan) plus some choices she knows her daughter is familiar with and likes. And as soon as her daughter loses interest in the food take it away. If she really didn’t eat much, offer a snack of protein and carbs an hour or so later.

I do take some issue with the blogger’s focus on team sports. Some kids (mine for example) just weren’t interested. They ended up loving figure skating instead.

Nutritionist Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto, co-authors of The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders, Gūrze, 2007, Marcia is also author of the recently published Nutrition Counseling in the Treatment of Eating Disorders, Routledge, 2013.

Copyrighted by Marcia Herrin and Nancy Matsumoto.