How can we help our daughters to have body confidence?

[ButterPie]

How do you try to help your daughter to feel positive about her body, now and in the future?

I make sure she sees that I breastfeed DD2, and we talk about how wonderful boobies are, that they are for making milk for babies (ie not primarily for men and sex, although obviously I don't say that bit)

I try to remember to say she is strong and clever instead of just beautiful (although that is hard, as she is very beautiful and people stop her in the street to tell her so , but that is because she is so little, I'm sure that will tail off as she gets older )

I try to stop myself moaning about my figure, instead I talk about eating healthily and exercising so I can be strong and healthy and have lots of energy.

We do plenty of physical activity, I try to at least do half an hour of running about to music each day with her.

Any other ideas?

It sounds like you are doing everything you can think of; it is obviously something that seriously concerns you.

Is that because you have had trouble with body image and wish to prevent in your daughter, or is it due to the media reporting about the extremely worrying trend of little girls developing eating disorders, or something else?

I worry about it quite frequently, for both my son and daughter. I have a very positive attitude to my weight and size; I consider myself very healthy and I look reasonable in jeans - thats all I need.

The problem I have is that I see a worrying trend that the next generations are not happy unless they are what they see as 'perfect' and perfect seems to be skinny. Any curves seem to be classed as imperfections now and it is such a shame to waste your life away worrying about what you look like to the extent of making your own life an actual misery over it.

I am just going to do what you do, and try my best. Also, making they as confident and resilient and strong minded as possible so they are not easily influenced by the 'mass'.

I'd make it a complete non issue tbh. I wouldn't make any fuss about healthy eating or excerise, other than leading by example and encouraging activity.

I wouldn't encourage it as in "Oh lets do exercise it will keep us fit and healthy" but "Wouldn't this be fun?"

I'm just sick of being told that I should hide when breastfeeding, that I should be completely hairless and curveless, that I should constantly be on a diet. I want to give my daughters the tools to resist it all and love their bodies.

keep her away from popular culture eg women's magazines, MTV videos, etc

When she's older you can encourage her to question the advertisements she sees on tv and in mags, get her to do the stuff for young girls on www.dove.co.uk, show her the sites on t'internet where they show you airbrushed photos of beautiful girls (and how they look in real life!) That way you can open dialogue and get her thinking for herself.

However, at 2, you can't do much more than you are already.

you've got your head screwed on there.

The most important is not slating yourself in any way.

My mum talked about diets from as early as I can remember and I subsequently dieted all my life. I was stick thin. At 5'2 and averaging 8 stone all through my teens to mid 20's I constantly thought I was fat !

When I got married I was just over 7 stone as I dieted and exercised to the max and I looked way too thin on the big day - it's lucky it was a big white dress to hide my bones!

I now usually weigh between 9 and 10 stone and try not to get too obsessive although It's hard.

A poll on TV recently found 80% of kids with weight issues say their mum is always moaning about being fat - there lies they key.
Maybe all the mags and tv stars aren't getting to them - maybe they are getting to us!!