girl's weight issues... I saw two very slim girls buying slimfast calorie counter books today and they were..

[brimfull]

about 8-9 yrs old fgs!!
The salesperson and I were gobsmacked,they were chatting to each other about how big they were.I was so shocked and saddened,they really were stick thin,not an ounce of fat on them.

I have a 15 yr old dd who is a perfectly healthy weight size 8-10 although she has the propensity to put weight on easily.I have never told her she is eating too much or should be careful about her weight.I am too scared of making her paranoid about what she eats like some of her friends.

Do you talk to your dd about weight issues

itv i has programme baout this very issue on now...spooky!

My DDs are way too young to worry about their weight (4 and 1) but I do worry about them in the future. Dh and I were both chubby as older kids and have a tendency to put on weight if we are not careful. DD1 is a skinny little thing at the moment and a light/fussy eater. I'm so conscious of how I treat her attitude to food and what effect it might have on her later.

I don't talk about weight issues directly, but dd(11) knows what is good and what is not. Basically everything is good in moderation. We have always been good eaters in this house, but at the same time, we are healthy eaters.

I think there is a fine line between teaching a child about healthy eating , restricting junk food and sounding body obsessed.It's very difficult.

You're so right. Its very fine. It doesn't help when the clothes shops aren't consistant with their childrens sizes. M&S are a nightmare! My dd is 11 and has always worn clothes for her age. Last year she needed school trousers, she was trying on aged 14 before they fitted her in M&S! She was distraught! Thankfully, because of the way I am with her, I was able to explain about sizing, but it could have been so different.

dd went throught the same thing at that age maureenlove.
I think some 11 yr olds have hips a dd did and the shops don't cater for them.

I explained that you shouldn't pay any attention to the sizes of clothes, just whether they fit nicely or not. I told her that she is exactly the right size for her age and like me some shops I'm a 14 and some shops I'm a 12. Asda and H&M areperfect for kids sizing.

It's very difficult. dd1 is 14 and conscious about her weight despite being a size 6 (she is small for her age). I have tried to teach her about eating healthily and tell her that there is nothing wrong with having sweets etc in moderation. We've tried to be balanced - not banned them from sweet things but kept them as a treat at the weekend. But there is just so much pressure on them to look a certain way. It makes me so sad.

I am surprised that things like Slimfast don't have an agelimit on them....because the content is mean to reflect the vitamin and mineral and calory needs for grown ups.

It is very sad that in our society children worry about things like that....bloody Body beautyful crap that we get brainwashed with from every side....sigh...

it's soooo sad
only have sons myself- I know there are increasing instances of weight issues for young men too but presume this is still mainly a 'young girl's problem'

it was obsessive at my school when I was 13-18. Really oppressive.

It it surprising though? At work in an office you have grown women the size of horses umming and ahhing over what biscuit to eat, if any at all....dicsussing how much fats in it, leading to what mad diet they are on this week....someone needs to tell them that noone CARES if they have a fecking biscuit, just eat it, shut up and theres NO NEED to justify a buscuit....arrgggghhhh.

yeah it's like the new feminine small talk or something isn't it. 'How much are YOU trying to lose? What diet are you on?'

If you say you're happy with your size they smirk at you, like 'how deluded can you be'

Its awful

Mine are too young too, but DD1 is a human dustbin - eats everything and anything - always talking about where her next gobful of food is coming from. She is skinny and as strong as a horse.

DD2 however eats much less han DD1 at her age and eschews cakes/biscuits etc , but is plumptious gorgeousness.

Don't worry now, but I do worry for the future.

ikwym fio

But I think it's also to do with the fashion world- mostly run by men I believe.

Have never met a (straight) man yet who cared all that much about a few pounds, or even noticed.

Fio...but if we wouldn't live in a soceity where there is such pressure on women to preferable shrink back into their pre pregnancy sized Jeans, which obviously weren't allowed to be bigger then a size 10 anyway, wihtin weeks of Birth of the Baby , and thinks like that!
I am very guilty of being a Body obcessed, etc...I do have issues wiht my body, but it's not my own fault I got like that

My 8yr old talks about being fat even though she's like a stick. But it's not serious really. I think she says it so that we tell her that she's lovely as she is . However she does have a friend who is quite chubby who gets upset about it and that makes me cross - a generation ago it would have been puppy fat, now it's being overweight.

It might be my fault as I'm very conscious of my weight but I control that partly with exercise which I encourage them to do with me (I run, the cycle alongside).

I think that when everyone attractive and desirable that is shown on tv is thin - thinner than they would have been a decade ago - it will rub off on the children. And there is only so much sensible parents can do to counteract it. When I was a child my parents always told me how bad smoking was and never did it - my friends however though it was cool and grown-up. So I started smoking. Because when you are teen or pre-teen that is who you listen to. Unfortunately.

I was a bulimic teenager with yoyoing weight and I'm now deliberately trying to be happy with a nice normal size 12-14.

Dh is and if it's all about attractiveness, surely that's the point...but it isn't is it, it's a sort of status thing between women.

I dont' like it when friends remark to me 'you look great- have you lost weight?' i.e. the thinner you are, the better. horrible.

know what you mena whywhywhy...saying that when very thin people tell me that I should not loose anymore weight, as I would be to thin...I can't take them series, lol!

My dh is happy with my size, it's me that isn't...but then, I think I could be underweight and I probably would still find somehting to complain about I look into the mirror and some days I am fine and happy with what I say, other times I will find all sorts wrong wiht it and I feel just soooo fat and really beat myself up over it

My girls are only 3 and 22 weeks but I do worry about this kind of thing. I have 'ishoos' with food my Mum is like Fio's, she's a size 8 but always banging on about how fat she is, she's e-mailed me all this week to describe the flab she claims is all over her. I'm a 16 and she's never told me I'm fat but if she thinks she's fat at a size 8 then what am I? As I was growing up she was always dieting and had special diet food in the fridge i wasn't allowed to touch. Coupled with my Dad's 'clean your plate or else' attitude it was bound to end in tears!

I just hope I can be normal with my dds and not pass anything onto them, it does worry me though.