I’m not even going to pretend I’m an expert on this topic. I’ve struggled with this concept my whole life, and continue too. Because of that fact though, I know how extremely important it is to have a positive body image for my children. In large part body image has affected every part of my life for as long as I can remember, and not always positively. What we see on television, read online and in magazines or hear from other people impacts all of us so much.

What we see is what we think we should be, even if it doesn’t look or isn’t healthy. If adults feel that way, it’s only amplified with children. They are still too young to weed out appropriate information, if they see it they think it’s right.

How we feel about our bodies can directly affect our daily actions. It may be the reason we don’t try out for the volleyball team or running club, it might be why we walk with our arms crossed and don’t want to stand up in front of the class. Having a positive self-esteem is vital to making friends, being happy and thriving.

We are our children’s most important role models, it’s for this reason that we have to ensure our own body image is in check so that we can help our children develop a positive body image. Unknowingly I know I pass on some of my own body image issues just through the way I hold my body or try on countless outfits before being satisfied with one. As a result, I’ve given myself rules to follow when around my children, in regards to body image and healthy eating.

Again I do not pretend to know a lot on this topic, I did find some very helpful tips on how to help your child develop a healthy body image that I’d love to share with you:

• With physical activity, focus on why it’s important for our bodies to get exercise. We highlight things like, it helps our bodies sleep when we get fresh air, it makes our bodies stronger when we walk, run, kick, swing. Help your child find the physical activitiy that they enjoy, it doesn’t have to be a sport. It could be karate, yoga, running, hoola hooping or anything else that makes them move. Try not to emphasize on physical appearance, instead focusing on health.

  I absolutely hate phrases like, you’ll be skinnier if you get exercise. This takes away from how good it makes our bodies feel when we exercise and focuses more on making us look different. All people are born with a body type, density of bones, fast or slow metabolism etc, this cannot be changed, and that’s ok. The goal should be that each person do what is right for their body and feel proud in their own skin. Recently, I’ve added a daily workout into my routine. The kids know about my workout and support me by allowing me the time to do it, they often join in with me. I make sure to highlight the reasons for my workout. To feel healthy, get stronger and have more energy to play with them. Here’s hoping that I’m passing on a healthy habbit.

• With food, we focus more on healthy fuel for our body rather than saying things like, we can’t eat that because it’s fattening, instead we say, this food helps make us strong, the protein in this chicken is what helps us run fast, this food might taste good but it doesn’t give our body the energy it needs to jump high. We try not to ban things with sugar, instead saying they are something we can have a little bit of after we’ve had healthy food to fuel our body, or we call these occasional foods. We also discuss how much sugar is in processed and packaged foods, did you know that five grams of sugar is one whole teaspoon of sugar? An interesting experiment to do with school-aged children is to visually show them how much sugar is in some of the food we eat. A visual can be jarring not only to our children but to us too. Putting into perspective what they’re eating and drinking can really help teach them moderation.
• Help your child myth bust what they see online or on television. Discuss the bodies they see and what have been done to them to make them look perfect. Discuss photoshop, retouching and all the other things that happen to these bodies for them to be on television or in magazines. This will hopefully help them take what they see and know the reality is often different.

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I sincerely hope that any of these tips can help us with our growing children. I believe body image to be something that is possibly forever altering to a child and their self-worth. I work hard with my own children to help them develop a loving relationship with themselves.