With the surge in social media and the selfie craze, the relentless drive to be super skinny is dangerously rising, even in younger children. It is therefore paramount that we, as parents, nurture a positive body image from the onset. To help, Dr. Carine El Khazen, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Eating Disorders program at the American Center for Psychiatry and Neurology shares her tips to help nurture a healthy body image.

• Encourage the child to listen to his/her body and teach him/her to differentiate between feeling hungry or full and the entire range of feelings: angry, upset, frustrated, happy.  It is fundamentally important that children learn to recognize those two sets of messages and it’s important also to ask the child to understand why he’s over eating: out of hunger, frustration, or boredom?
• Don’t offer food for comfort and be an example, don’t comfort-eat yourself and especially not in front of your children.
• Don’t reward your children with treats. Help the child be connected to his/her body and allow him/her to stop when full.
• Avoid meals in front of TV as the child will tend to eat while being disconnected with his body and tend to eat beyond fullness without even noticing.
• Be strict in refusing any kind of dieting even if the child gained weight but help him improve slightly (not too much) his eating habits and increase his physical activities by including fun activities.
• The idea is to have a healthy diet at home for everyone with an allowed one treat a day as typically if you forbid all foods, you will create cravings and potential binges.
• It’s also important to give them permission to choose food occasionally just because it tastes good. Avoid labeling food as “good” and “bad” as this demonizing could lead to craving the forbidden foods
• Encourage physical activity for the right reasons: not because we want to be thin or prevent weight gain, but because it’s fun to be active and it makes us feel good from the inside by lifting our spirits.
• Avoid putting too much emphasis on physical appearance in general, don’t say anything unkind and don’t make any kind of comments about your bodies or anyone else’s.

Credit: Dr. Carine El Khazen, Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Eating Disorders program at the American Center for Psychiatry and Neurology (ACPN) in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.