Eating disorders are dangerous behaviors that hurt not only a person’s health, but their self-esteem and self-worth as well.
No parent wants to see their child suffer, physically or mentally. Unfortunately, some children learn at a very young age that happiness and self-worth comes from attaining a certain body shape.
Many teens, and even children as young as 12 years old and younger, turn to dieting, excessive exercise and other compulsive, dangerous behaviors to alter their bodies.
As a mother, you can help your child accept his or her body and resist these unhealthy attitudes and behaviors before they take root. You can prevent eating disorders in your children by being a good role model.
Children learn a lot from their parents, even when parents don’t realize they’re making a statement. Examine your thoughts, attitudes and behaviors toward your own body. If you are constantly criticizing yourself or others, dieting or engaging in other similar behaviors, your child will learn to do the same.
Set a good example for your child by practicing positive, healthy attitudes and behaviors such as sensible eating, exercise and self-acceptance.
Educate your child. Learn about the dangers of eating disorders and share this information with your child. Discuss with your son or daughter the dangers of trying to change your body shape through dieting, how moderate exercise is valuable for health, and the importance of eating well-balanced meals at least three times a day.
Mute out the media. Children are constantly bombarded with images that portray certain body types as the key to power, popularity and perfection. Help your child understand that these are distorted images and that the human body should be celebrated in all shapes and sizes.
Promote healthy eating and proper exercise. Teach your child to eat well-balanced meals and avoid categorizing foods as ‘good/safe’ ‘bad/fattening,’ etc. Encourage your child to be active and enjoy activities regardless of their weight or body shape. Place emphasis on exercising for health rather than on exercising to change your body.
Build your child’s self-esteem. Encourage your child to participate in athletic, intellectual or social activities that build their self-esteem and self-respect. If your child has a well-rounded sense of self and solid self-esteem, they will be less likely to turn to dieting and disordered eating to make them feel better.
Throw out the junk food. Don’t stock them. It’s bad for everyone in the family. And if kids see others eating them, it’s too hard for them to resist. They will eat whatever you store at home.
Finally, mothers should remember that eating disorders are complex illnesses that are caused by a variety of factors. Even the most caring parent cannot always prevent their child from developing an eating disorder.
If your child has an eating disorder, seek medical help right away. Eating disorders are dangerous mental illnesses that rarely get better on their own. Let doctors do their jobs by diagnosing and treating your child.
Effective discipline techniques fathers should adopt
As a father, the discipline techniques you choose would have to depend on your child’s age, the type of behavior your child displays, your child’s temperament and your parenting style.
One of the positive discipline techniques that help with disciplining children is creating diversions. If your child is less than a year in age, you shouldn’t ideally be thinking of disciplining your child. However, you need to tell them what to do and what not to do so that they don’t harm themselves.
In such cases, you can get your child’s attention by calling his or her name, offer a toy to play with, or make a funny sound – anything that diverts or distracts the child’s attention. Kids this age are easily distracted, so you can easily do that without using harsh tones with them.
Fathers need to reward their child after he or she has done something good, so that the child is encouraged to repeat that behaviour.
Some parents don’t realize the importance of rewarding their kids for their good behavior, which can work like magic. So, become a better father and encourage your kids more.
Pat your child on back, compliment and praise him or her to show it’s the behavior you want. But this should not be mixed up with bribing a child, which is given beforehand to motivate your child to do things that you want – both are very different.
Kids who are bribed tend to learn to manipulate their parents and work their way to gain more bribes. Some work only when they are bribed and not otherwise. Bribing should be avoided.
Don’t expect perfection from your child. No one is perfect, and it’s unrealistic to expect your child to be well behaved always. If you expect it so, it might stress your child and he or she might misbehave just to ease the tension. So, set specific, realistic, and limited goals to help your child so that you and your child both succeed.
Grounding is another effective discipline technique for school going kids and teenagers, where you restrict your child to a certain place, like his or her room as a way to punish him or her.
Positive reinforcement is better and more powerful than punishment or negative reinforcement. Small rewards like an ice cream treat or car ride can be more effective than big rewards, like a promise of a bicycle. Kids might stop trying if they feel they can’t earn the big reward that has been offered.
Effectively punish your child by taking away privileges. Your child should learn that privileges come with responsibility and he or she needs to earn it. This technique is effective only when it’s used occasionally.
Such discipline technique works best if the privilege is something your child values, if it’s related in some way to the behaviour, and if it’s taken away as soon as the inappropriate behaviour occurs.