Be gentle with her.
She’s got a tender heart.
She may appear to be chubby to you now, but soon she’s going to grow to be tall.
She’s going to need any extra fat to fuel her future growth spurt—and fully develop her brain and all of her reproductive organs in a few years.
Just let her be.
Don’t put her on a diet. Don’t restrict her food and deprive her of vital nutrients and calories her body so desperately needs to develop. Don’t pressure her to lose weight. And, please don’t show displeasure with your own body size in front of her.
Don’t allow diet-wellness culture to seep in and attempt to destroy her health and well-being.
Your ideal image for her; your ideal weight for her; your ideal size for her will damage her mentally and physically.
Just let her be.
Her body knows how to regulate hunger and fullness—if you don’t tamper with it.
Her body knows how much to eat.
Just let her be.
Let her body self-regulate and stabilize her size.
Let her mind develop a healthy relationship with food.
Let her self-image flourish.
She’s not damaged. She’s not a project for you to fix.
Just let her be.
And she will flourish.
The author a few years later.
I encourage all parents and their child’s physician to listen to this important podcast episode: How My Daughter’s Eating Disorder Changed Everything: A Mom’s Perspective
This is also an important movie to watch: Dying in Plain Sight
Emily Boller, wife, mother, artist, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture.
In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.