11 year old dieting

[Panther11]

My 11 year old daughter has started to cut down on food, cut out sweets, eat 'healthy'. Has asked for a set of scales to weigh herself. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this, warning signs to look out for?

She is beautiful, slim, kind, clever - I think someone at school may have been saying things to her.

Thank you.

My instinct would be to be wary. An 11 year old is still growing and I would be very concerned if she wanted to cut out too many food groups or cut down too much. Nothing wrong with wanting to eat healthily. Nothing at all, provided she is eating enough, not cutting out too many fats and carbs that she needs for energy and growth.

How is her mental health and self esteem generally? A sudden and dramatic change in eating habits and obsession with body weight and appearance can sometimes be symptoms of a need to seize control somehow. Something may be unsettling her.

As the parent of a 16 year old DD who has now been diagnosed with anorexia, I accept that my judgement may be a little clouded, but I would say that healthy children trying to lose weight that they don't have in the first place is a potential warning sign.

My DD didn't have the weight to lose. She was slender anyway, and sporty. She is now very underweight with the attendant health risks that brings. Does your DD understand that being very underweight can cause serious health problems, just as much as being overweight can? Especially in at an age where they are still growing a fair bit

Check her phone. I had to insist that my DD removed the MyFitnessPal app from hers. She was using it to calorie count and to cut down to a dangerously low level when it is really better suited to helping overweight people (like me ) to gain control of our weight.

Not trying to frighten you, just some ideas that, with the value of some hindsight, I would be looking out for.

Should add, I wouldn't buy her her own set of scales. It sounds like the start of a potential obsession here (and I hope you don't mind me suggesting that). Her own set of scales would do nothing to discourage that.

If you must have scales in the house, keep them in your own room. Not directly available to her.

Hi - thank you for your sound advice. My daughter at the moment doesn't have a phone and she won't be having scales in her room. She does seem to have low self-esteem, she has high standards for herself and for other people, quite often I don't live up to her expectations.

I will obviously be monitoring her. I hope your daughter overcomes her illness, it is a terrible disease.

Best wishes

sounds good to cut out the sweets but maybe explain how scales would be pointless at her age as her weight should / will be increasing as she grows up.