Neighborhood Doctor: Anti-Fat Bias and Focusing About Health Without the Number on a Scale
In this episode of Neighborhood Doctor we talk about how to handle other commenting on our kids weight. An odd thing to do certainly but it happens and we want you to be your best prepared to handle this conversation well.
Fatness is not an indicator of health and attempting to loss engage in weight cycling can lead to medical consequences. Forgot your kids weight, listen to your body, find ways to have fun outside, get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water and spend time having fun with the people you love.
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Our Host
Dr. Ryan Hassan
Transcript:
Ari O'Donovan: (00:00)
Hi everyone. Ari here. Before the episode starts, I wanna say thank you for listening and invite you to boost Oregon's annual fundraiser. It'll be on November 4th in downtown Portland, Oregon, and there's gonna be drinks, food, live music. It's gonna be a ton of fun. Boost Oregon wants to give fans of the show half price tickets. If you wanna take advantage of that discount, be sure to click the top link in the description and select partner admission. By the way, the second link will also have the event details. So if you're around the great Pacific Northwest, we hope to see you on November 4th, and of course, enjoy this episode.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (00:02)
I am Ryan, pediatrician and dad here to answer my patient's most common questions. Your child is put on some weight and family members have started to notice. What do you do? The first and most important thing parents need to know about managing their children's weight is that they should not be managing their children's weight. Many reasons for this, one of which is that attempting to lose weight is a bad idea. It perpetuates anti-fat bias and it puts you at risk for many chronic diseases, including several that are often blamed on fatness, like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, which are common complications of dieting and weight cycling. I have a lot of fat patients and not so fat patients who have tried to intentionally lose weight over the years, and almost all of them have been unable to do so, and most of the ones who have developed dangerous eating disorders that we're now trying to manage instead.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (00:53)
The second important reason that I think parents need to forget about their children's weight is that fatness is not an indicator of health. It's definitely not an indicator of health behaviors. I tell all of my patients the same thing when it comes to making healthy choices. Listen to your body. Eat a very diet. Find ways to have fun moving your body outside. Get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of water, and spend time having fun with the people you love. If you do these things, it will optimize your health. Some people who do these things will be thin and others will be fat. Humans come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and ability levels. Everybody deserves to be respected exactly as they are, and no one has the right to ask someone to change their body. That's why I recommend that every parent accept their child's body exactly as it is.
Dr. Ryan Hassan: (01:48)
I recommend that every parent model body positivity for their own children. That means accept your body exactly as it is regardless of your weight or any other perceived physical defects, and let your child know that your body is perfect just the way it is, so that they will learn that their body is also perfect just the way it is and it always will be. Anti-fat stigma leads to suffering for all of us. It doesn't help people lose weight, and it certainly doesn't help anyone get healthier. So if anyone tells you that your child needs to change their weight, you can just tell them no thanks. We're gonna focus on being healthy without worrying about the number on the scale. That's my show. If you have medical questions you'd like me to answer, reach out to Boost Oregon online and come back next week for a new episode of Boosting our Voices with my friend Ari.