I think there's a lot of talk about teens and body image, and many parents become aware of that when kids hit puberty, but kids as young as 5 are already expressing a desire for a body that is thinner than their current self or future self.

Seeta Pai

Categorized in : Living

They already know about dieting, and some might have even tried it out or restricted their food intake at certain times, so that's pretty alarming, it's almost like things are a little too late if you are going to wait all the way until teenage years to talk to kids about body image.

So instead of focusing on the way someone looks ... shifting that conversation ... from how someone looks healthy to how someone feels healthy, a lot of the negative body image comes from internal views of oneself, and when you can really shift that conversation from how does someone look to how does someone feel, then kids can really start to think about what their choices are and how they have control over how they feel, and that brings positive self-esteem and self-awareness.

'Oh, fat people do this, or thin people do that' -- whenever you have an opportunity, question those assumptions, so any time there's an example in media or just in real life, you build the muscles if you will in your kid ... so that they can resist the messages that are coming at them.