Real Kids Come in All Sizes: Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem

By Kathy Kater

Book Overview

Confronting two of this country's fastest growing health problems--body image and weight concerns among children and teens--this practical guide shows parents how to help their children maintain body esteem and make healthy choices a routine part of their lives. At a time when they should feel secure in their body's growth, too many American children become anxious about size and weight and begin to eat in ways that contribute to the very problems they hope to avoid. Obesity, negative body image, and eating disorders are extremely difficult to reverse once established, and can be devastating to the self-esteem of developing bodies and egos. Long overdue, Real Kids Come in All Sizes challenges the toxic myths that promote body-image and weight concerns in our culture. Building a foundation for lifelong health, parents can use these lessons to help their children: --Eat well and be active --Accept size diversity in themselves and others --Value health and well-being over image --Be comfortable in their developing bodies --Resist damaging cultural messages --Develop a strong identity and choose realistic role models

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767916085
• ISBN13: 9780767916080
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

must read

I'm a doctor and a mom of a young girl. I want all moms to have this information and share it with their children. Low body esteem is a top factor in dieting, unhealthy dieting behaviors, eating disorders and yes, even weight gain. Spread the word, and make the world a safer, kinder place for our girls to grow up in.

Excellent Resource

As a school counselor, counselor educator and a parent, I found this book to contain a wealth of information. The lessons are clear, appropriate and meaningful to the topics being presented. I recommend this book as a valuable resource when consulting for school districts and working with parents.

Revolutionary thinking!

Kater's book finally gives parents and educators alike the long-overdue confidence they need to raise girls within a world that is always pressuring them to "shape up" or forget about being happy. This book can serve as a teaching tool for young parents, a welcome eye-opener for parents of adolescents, or, for any reader, a fascinating new look at girls' enormous struggles with maintaining body image perspective in the face of our too-often unhealthy mediacentric culture. Kater is a proven leader in her field and someone who we must listen to if the horrible trends of eating disorders and rock-bottom body esteem are to be reversed.

It's never too late!

It's never too late to be a positive influence on a child's body esteem! This wonderful, highly organized and simple book shows us how to practice and promote positive attitudes and behaviors that will help children, and adults, develop a healthy body esteem. Whether a child is 2 years old, or 20 or 40, her/his body esteem can be influenced by those people she/he cares most about. The 10 essential lessons layed out in this text show us ways to promote healthy, fun eating, regular exericise and a positive body image. I found that this book not only helped me be a good role model for the children I influence, but it also helped me develop my own healthy body esteem!

An Excellent Resource For Parents

Kathy Kater's book is full of clearly-written, practical advice for parents who are concerned about their child's body image. She writes not only from the perspective of a therapist and educator, but from her own experiences as a parent of a son and daughter. Each of the book's "ten lessons" contain suggestions that can be readily integrated into the situations and conversations parents typically encounter. The book is clear, concise and well-organized. It is easy to pick up later and locate information when you need to. I have two teenage daughters, and I wish the book would have been available ten years ago!