How to Build a Healthy Body Image in your Kids

How to Build a Healthy Body Image in your Kids

Body image problems and eating disorders are on the rise in adolescent girls and boys.  In an age when our children are exposed to more media and advertising messages than ever before, there’s plenty of pressure to be skinny.So what can parents do to encourage their children to have a healthy body image?  Christine Morgan […]

By Katrina RoeWednesday 15 Jun 2011Hope MorningsHealth and WellbeingReading Time: 1 minute

Body image problems and eating disorders are on the rise in adolescent girls and boys.  In an age when our children are exposed to more media and advertising messages than ever before, there’s plenty of pressure to be skinny.

So what can parents do to encourage their children to have a healthy body image?  Christine Morgan is the CEO of The Butterfly Foundation, a group that assists families with eating disorders, and she says that it’s about teaching children to value themselves and their bodies and to see food simply as fuel for the body.

She believes parents can have an impact and that the best thing they can do is be good role models.  This may mean you need to take a body image audit of your own life.  Do you place too much value on appearances?  Do you need to throw out the scales?  Are you an emotional eater? 

Audio – Christine Morgan discusses the psychology behind the issues of poor body image that sometimes leads to eating disorders