Food fixations

Create a healthy food environment

Protecting a child from developing an eating disorder also means creating a healthy food environment at home. Make sure there is a good supply of fruit and vegetables and nutritionally balanced meals on offer. You also need to look at the feelings generated around food in your home. Em Farrell advocates a relaxed approach. This doesn’t mean letting a child eat whatever they want, nor does it mean controlling every morsel that passes their lips. There is, says Farrell, a middle path. She is happy for her four year-old daughter to have chocolate biscuits at breakfast, on the understanding that she can’t have any more later in the day. She doesn’t advise forcing a child to clear their plate before they can have pudding, as it puts too much value on the sweet food; plus a child needs to learn for themselves the signals that tell them they are full. Formal sit down meals together are lovely, but a TV dinner can be fun too.

And should children be allowed to eat sweets and other so called ‘bad’ foods? Some middle class parents refuse to give young children any sweets, offering rice cakes and crackers as snacks instead. The theory behind this is that they won’t know what they are missing, and that, giving sugar fuels a sweet tooth. Farrell is sceptical, believing this can backfire, badly. Sweet foods ‘become over important if you deny them altogether,’ she says. Her view is supported by research from Pennsylvania State University, which studied five to nine year olds. Those who had been prevented from eating fattening foods were at greater risk of suffering weight and eating problems, and binged on banned foods when their parents weren’t around.

How to teach your child to love their body

• Tell them they are the perfect shape and size for them.
• Don’t make critical comments about your own body when they’re around.
• Create lots of opportunities to play games where they can enjoy their bodies: dance, dressing up, rough and tumble.
• Encourage sporting activities
• Get them into the walking habit, rather than using the car
• Teach them how to look after their bodies and appearance
• Avoid toys, comics and books that promote the skinny glam stereotype