Raising Fit Kids: Mothers Should Be Cautious When Broaching Weight With Daughters

Sometimes it is pretty hard for the parents to talk with their teenagers about anything, especially when it comes to their weight. However, when you notice that your daughter's clothes are getting too tight for her, should you sit down and have a serious talk about it?

Well, parents can discuss issues of diet and weight with their daughters, according to a recent study. However, talking about it can be tricky; hence, Erin Hillard, an author of the study and a developmental psychology doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame said mothers should raise the subject "very carefully."

Hillard said she and her colleagues conducted a study to a group of girls and found out that discussing weight loss to body-conscious girls is very hard, particularly to sixth to eighth graders. Moreover, she said they discovered that broaching the subject to young girls can affect girls negatively, especially if their moms avoid such subject as well -- concerning their own weight.

"Generally, we found that for the daughters who were being encouraged to lose weight by their mothers, outcomes were worse if their mothers were not also discussing their own weight concerns," Hillard said about the findings, which were published in the journal Body Image.

More so, girls, who are encouraged by their mom to diet but their own mothers avoided to address their own weight issues, are at higher risk of developing eating disorders. Thus, she said based on the study, it is much better not to discuss such topic, especially if the moms don't address their own weight issue first. After all, "the best outcomes were found for daughters whose mothers were not engaging in either type of conversation," Hillard said.

Nevertheless, if you are really concern with your child's health and really think that it's your job to help her improve her diet, then look for great opportunities to talk about it, according to Don Morgan, PhD, director of the Center for Physical Activity and Health in Youth at Middle Tennessee State University. Just have a casual dialogue with your kid and talk about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.