How to Talk to Your Teen About Food & Body
When is “normal” is not so normal in teens?
It’s important to talk to your kids about their experiences and what they are learning. A parents job is to listen and to model the behaviors that are healthy.
Even parents have bad body image days!!
Be careful with how you talk about your body as a parent as your teen can and will absorb those words/beliefs you put on yourself as they create their relationship with their own body.
“I am having a hard body image day.”
NORMAL: It is normal to have days where we feel insecure or question our bodies
“I ate a lot today”
NOT NORMAL: Intense emotional reactions and fear around the way the body looks and/or weight gain.
“I am-” “I shouldn’t have”
RESPONDING: “It is normal to overeat somedays, your body knows what to do with that”
NORMAL: Being curious about diets or others trying to lose weight, questioning if they really need to be doing so.
“What is this diet? Is this healthy?”
NOT NORMAL: Dieting or cutting out certain food groups or types of food in order to alter their body.
“Sugar is bad, I have to cut it out so I don’t gain weight”
RESPONDING: Talk about messages of diet culture at home so that your child learns to be a critical consumer of them messages society is giving them.
NORMAL: Talking to friends about occasional body insecurities.
“My body has changed since last year”
NOT NORMAL: Comparing bodies with friends or trying to alter their bodies together through diet changes or exercise.
“We can’t gain weight over the Summer”
RESPONSE: As a parent, you need to love and accept your child as their minds and bodies grow and develop. No changing or altering necessary.
Consider if there are some ways you can support your teen more effectively. The body IS changing and diet culture is PERSUASIVE.
Every teen deserves to live out their best years in the body they have!
If your teen is struggling with their relationship to food and/or body…reach out to us today to get treatment started ASAP. We are here to help.
