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Child mental health

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7 year old thinks she's fat

1 reply

Minnie123456 · 30/08/2020 01:11

Dd was wearing a cropped sports top the other day, she kept asking how short it was meant to be but I never thought anything of it, until yesterday she said it was because she was fat, my heart broke when she said those words.
I told her she wasn't fat, that there was more fat on a Twiglet, probably not the best choice of words but I was shocked. She said that it (the fat) was sticking out when she was sitting down. I told her again she wasn't fat.
Dd is not fat, she's thin, she has put a little weight on during lockdown as she lived on carbs.
I never talk about my weight or her weight in front off her. Ive struggled with mine for years and am paranoid about it and I dont want her being like that. We do have scales but they stay in our spare room out of sight. I've only weighed dd once about a year and a half ago, she got a bad bug twice inside 2 weeks and lost a lot of weight, which she never regained until lockdown. I was worried about her as she lost so much so wanted to check she was in "healthy" range. I never told her what the scales where for, told her that they where to show us how big she had got.
Sorry for the long post I was just wondering if anyone has any advice if dd brings it up again. I don't want her worrying about her weight at such a young age or any age

OP posts:
SkinSkin · 30/08/2020 01:27

My son, same age, worries the same.
I told him if you can't see your toes you're fat. He wanted to feel how that would be so I let him stick a football in his top to block his view and then he understood.
I also weight him and did his height, and plotted him on the BMI chart, which showed him as normal range, and I assured him that if he went over that, I'd support him with a healthy diet and more exercise, but he's perfect just the way he is.

I'm low weight and husband is overweight, but neither of us discuss this, so I can only assume it's playground talk.

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