Should you tell your child they’re fat?

I was just on BBC Radio Leeds discussing this question, ‘Should you tell your child they’re fat?’ as it’s the start of National Childhood Obesity Week and nearly a quarter of British children are overweight by the age of three !

The real message behind the rather dramatic and unhelpful question on BBC Leeds was to raise awareness of the dangers of being above a healthy weight during childhood.

• Keeping a food diary helps focus everyone on those little incidental cans of coke, bag of crisps and unhealthy 2 chocolate croissants at breakfast that can so invidiously sneak in to our daily diets without us noticing.
• How about making some small changes that over time build up to make big differences ?
• How about walking to school, riding a bike in the park, bouncing on the trampoline after school, taking up netball, tennis, or an active hobby ?
• How about cooking without oil, getting the kids involved in planning and shopping for this week’s menu – not just grabbing the first thing in the fridge after a hard day, stocking the fridge with summer fruits to pick on instead of crisps, sweets and donuts?

• Model the healthier options yourself and keep it all in balance. Don’t focus on a person’s weight, focus on what talents, skills, attributes they have.
• Notice what language you use to speak about people’s bodies, and your own.