Flam, Lisa. "Mom who put 7-year-old on a diet: Girl now a ‘healthy weight’." Today 15 Jan 2013. Health. 26 Feb 2013 <http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2013/01/15/16525599-mom-who-put-7-year-old-on-a-diet-girl-now-a-healthy-weight?lite>.
I read the article "Mom who put 7-year-old on a diet: Girl now a ‘healthy weight’" by Lisa Flam from Today.com. This article is mainly about how a mother put her obese 7 year old on a extremely strict diet that has been questioned morally since last year. The 7-year old girl was 93 pounds and 4'4", which is obese for her age, and her mother wanted to take action. Bea, the girl, faced consequences for just having "inappropriate snacks" at her friend's house or having the food at the French Heritage Day celebration at her school. She was publicly argued with about her food choices with her mother, who didn't come into this thinking about how strict she would become. The mother, Dara Lynn Weiss, claimed that she didn't want her daughter to struggle with the same issues with food that she did. But others claim that you have to handle subjects like weight carefully with children, since "We don’t want a child to look at food as the enemy." (Robyn Silverman)
I believe the author wants you to understand the health benefits, but also wants you to think about how Weiss's method isn't very encouraging. She shows Weiss's side of the story by quoting her and her book multiple times so you could understand her point of view and where she's coming from. But at the end, Flam include a quote almost criticizing Weiss's method, saying that parents should be careful about what they say and do relating to their child's weight.
While reading this article, I honestly felt a little angry. I'm all for healthy living and even for people to be super health nuts-but on their own terms. The thing that angered me was that Weiss didn't let her daughter look at the situation like it was an improvement. If you're seven, of course you want sweets at a party. She's a kid, and making a kid miserable isn't going to make them very happy about dieting. Second of all, I feel as if Weiss didn't handle the psychological development part well. I think that forcing her daughter to go on this diet will make her think that anything above perfect weight isn't acceptable. I think this will come back to bite her daughter in her tween and teen years and may drive her towards anorexia or bulimia. If she's already looking at food like it's not a good thing, then she might just stop eating if she thinks she's overweight or not happy the way she is.
What would you do if you own mother told you that you weight was so off the charts that you needed to go on a super diet to fix it? I would honestly be offended. It would make me feel uncomfortable and self conscious. I would probably question how the world saw me and even how my family and friends saw me. Was I really fat to them? Is that the one thing they noticed about me? Those questions are why I don't respect this action. Also, for a growing up girl, I would then look at food like it's bad, which could drive some to having eating disorders and low self-esteem.
COMMENT PLEASE!! Would you do the same thing that Weiss did? How would you change it?
That's so awful of a mother to do! I agree with you that eating well is important and dieting to some extent is too, but I believe dieting is something that someone should only do because THEY want to do it and they should control it, not their mom forcing them to! Especially if they are 7!! That's absurd.
ReplyDeleteI think that the mother has her reasons but that she shouldn't be too strict. When the girl grows up and goes into middle school or high school where there is even more peer pressure and judgemental people, the daughter would be glad but I still agree with you about feeling self conscious and eating disorders. I guess that as long as the child becomes healthy but still enjoys herself, it's okay to have her on a diet (balanced ofcourse, not too extreme). Anyway, great post!
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