Putting Kids On Diets: Weight Watcher Mom Speaks Out

In this past Aprils issue of Vogue, I, like many other parents was a bit taken back while reading the article Weight Watcher which documented Dara-Lynn Weiss’s struggle with helping her seven-year-old overweight daughter Bea slim down and get healthy. It seemed everyone, not only parents, had something to say about Weiss’s decision to not only put her seven-year-old on a diet but document it in the pages of the most notorious fashion magazine in the world. For the most part, Dara-Lynn kept quiet, not responding to the constant criticism she received from the press, until this week when her memoir The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet, was released. In the book, Weiss defends her decision to help Bea, who at the age of six years old and ninety-three pounds was diagnosed as clinically obese, get healthy and reduce her BMI. Weiss also mentions in the article how upsetting as a parent it was for her when her daughter would come to her at such a young age with insecurities about her weight. I feel like this brings up a lot of tough questions we as parents face. What is the best way to talk to your kids about eating healthy and remaining active? Over the past few years especially we have all heard so many heartbreaking stories about kids and teens being bullied for so many different things, one of them being overweight. How do you feel about putting your child on a diet? We would love to hear your thoughts!