It was a very gradual process for me, but first I started to lose weight and diet and cut back on food and became real preoccupied with calories and fat. Julie started worrying about her weight in grade school. Although she didn't become anorexic until years later, the pattern of negative thinking was established much earlier. Zeckhausen says the most important thing for parents to do is be as normal about food as possible. That means not dieting, not bingeing when your under stress and not dividing foods up into good or bad categories.
Appearance is just one aspect of a person and it's what is on the inside that counts.
Evaluate Your Child's Habits America has an obsession with appearance and being thin. Surveys have shown that 42 percent of first through third graders want to be thinner. And more than 50 percent of 3,000 fifth through eighth graders wanted to lose weight regardless of their size. The consequence of this intense focus on being thin is causing a distorted body image in kids, and an ideal they cannot achieve. And the potential damage to kids and their developing bodies are extreme.