How to Create A Healthy Relationship with Food

One of the burning questions I am hearing routinely from parents is this: How can I help my child develop a healthy relationship with food?
Certainly, good eating habits, as well as general food habits, are some key signs of a healthy relationship, but there’s more to the story. What about body image? What about the influence of media and well-intentioned healthcare providers?
I dig into all these questions and more in this episode of The Nourished Child with Julie Duffy Dillon. She is the creator of the Love, Food podcast, a registered dietitian, licensed therapist, and mom.
Learn how YOU can help your child develop a healthy relationship with food. Click To Tweet

What You Will Learn About a Healthy Relationship with Food:

• How the media misinforms the public about what it means to be healthy
• Why dieting doesn’t work for the long run (and in fact, it makes things worse)
• Why messages and beliefs about “thinness equals health” are harmful, even toxic, to children
• Health can be had at any size
• Why weight stigma hurts everyone (even thin children)
• What a healthy relationship with food really looks like
• How parents can help their child develop a healthy relationship with food
• How the underpinnings of an eating disorder in children grow and take hold
• 3 components to the development of an eating disorder
• Tips to help children feel good about themselves and their bodies

What is Covered in the Episode:

• The humanizing aspect of raising children (even for professionals!)
• Why parents need to trust themselves so that their children will learn to trust themselves too
• Why media coverage of bodies is a social justice issue
• “Fat” as a descriptor of the body (not as a pejorative, shaming term)
• How beliefs about body weight and health may lead to poor body image and dieting
• Why eating disorders are more of a concern for children than Type 2 diabetes
• Why healthy eating needs to be pleasurable
• How to talk with children without commenting on their body features
• What individuals with eating disorders wish was handled differently in their youth

Links Mentioned in this Show:

Julie’s website
Julie’s podcast: Love, Food
AAP Guidelines for talking about weight with kids
Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility
How to Say ‘No’ Nicely to Your Child’s Food Requests
Eating Disorders mini-series (3-part series for parents)

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