Your Child's Weight: Helping Without Harming

I was incredibly grateful to discover this book, and Ellyn Satter's work generally. It is full of detailed advice about feeding your family, focusing on health and family relationships, not weight. It has given me permission to feed my kids well, and teach them how to have a good relationship with food. It is a voice of sanity in a world which is pretty hysterical about eating. If you are looking for something which will tell you how to make your child lose weight, this is not the right book for you. But I would urge you to read it before putting your family on a "diet". Some people may find the book long or wordy, but I don't mind the style - I feel like I am in a consultation with Ellen when I'm reading it, as she tells me in detail why you should never make your kids diet, and what to do instead. Her stories about kids whose parents restricted their food (with the best intentions) made me cry. In the end, this is a book about acceptance - of our kids, of their natural body shape, and ultimately, acceptance of our own bodies as well - because you can't improve your kids relationship with food unless you do the same for your yourself.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. We have been following the basic principles in this book for three years, when my child first started gaining weight quickly as a pre-schooler. The basic premise of this book is the the parent controls what the child eats and when (following guidlines laid out by Satter), and the child decides whether to eat and how much. At first some of the methods can be scary and counter-intuitive (i.e., let your kid eat as much as they want at dinner time!) Now, three years later, my child has slimmed down naturally, without any type of dietary restrictions, and shows much less interest in food and much more interest in other activities, including exercise. We plan to continue using Satter's methods as long as possible. This book has made a major positive impact on our whole family. If your child has been labeled "overweight" or "at risk of overweight" you owe it to them and yourself to read this book, and trust and use the methods in it.

Satter's approach to eating and teaching healthy eating habits to your children has been incredibly helpful to our family. Our daughter, now 5.5 yrs old, has always tracked 30-60% heavier than she is tall and than our pediatrician was comfortable with. In the past five years I've despaired my daughter would always be heavy, be made fun of by peers, and spend her adult life dieting. My concern has accidentally given rise to subtle food battles in the house as I was always trying to encourage her to eat "more healthily", my code for eating lower fat and calorie foods, fruits and veggies galore. This book has really helped me figure out what I can do to help her grow well and reach her optimal weight while enjoying food. We are no longer battling over food and are rebuilding her trust that she is not going to be denied foods she loves. My only dispute with the book is that the case studies placed throughout make it hard to get to the basic information I need. They would be better placed in an appendix.

I love it so far! I'm about halfway through, but it makes alot of sense. Having dinners as a family, AND making them pleasant without food battles is great. I've already noticed that my 10 year old son just eats until he's done. We're not restricting his portions and he seems to stop eating easily AND is asking for vegetables. I think the hardest part will be routinely providing the structured meals...especially breakfast and lunch and not having 'grazing'. I would definitely recommend this if you have an above average weight child. Or even a normal or underweight child will benefit from the structure of the meals and learning how to regulate their own hunger signals.

I am thankful that we found this book early enough in my daughter's childhood that we can implement the suggestions and really make a difference in her life. I have struggled with obesity my entire life, and my daughter appears to have inherited my genetic makeup. I learned from this book that many of the things my husband and I were doing WERE harming her and setting her up for full-blown obesity in the future. This book has helped us develop a more relaxed environment around eating, and we now have sit-down family meals for every meal we have at home. That is a key component of the whole philosophy, and even though we knew that was important in the same way that everyone does, we didn't make it a priority until after reading this book.

We read this book about 6 months ago - our son, age 5, seemed to be eating a ton, was rather heavy, and we were worried about what was going on. Initially the book reassured us, and we set about to implement it. While there is great value in this book - and it did reduce a LOT of the stress of family dinners - it turns out that it was exactly the WRONG advice for our son. He ballooned in weight - gaining nearly 15% in body weight. We recently saw a nutritionist who suggested that this book should have a warning label on it - it's great advice - but NOT if your kid has sensory processing issues, autism, or asperger's!Basically our son can't feel a lot of sensations - he doesn't feel much pain, he can't feel food in his mouth unless his mouth is totally full, he responds best to deep pressure sensations, etc. And what that means is that he can't actually FEEL if his stomach is full - he just keeps eating, way past the point of fullness, because his body doesn't work properly to transmit the feeling of fullness to his brain, and/or his brain can't interpret that sensation properly.Anyways, I am writing this review because I really wish someone had told me this before I bought this book!

This is truly a wonderful book. It looks at the emotional side of children and their weight, something parents neglect to remember. This should be required reading for all doctors and parents, even if a child does not have a huge weight issue. It sheds light on why so many children have eating disorders earlier in life. As an educator, it gives me a new resource to share with parents. As a parent, it validates the things I am doing right.

いかに子供の体重を減らすかが書いてある、のではない。子供の年齢によって多少の違いはあるが、要は、何を、いつ、どこで食べるかを決めるのは両親の責任で、食べるか食べないか、また、どの程度食べるかは子供が判断すること。子供にストレスをかけないで、食卓の時間を楽しく過ごすこと。食べるものの種類を制限するのではなく、食べる量を子供が自分で決められると信じることなどが重要と説いている。ダイエットができるコツが書いてあるのかと思って読むと落胆すること間違いなしだが、読んでいくとだんだんと納得していく自分に気づいた。この考え方の本質は大人のダイエットにも通じるものがあるのではと読んでいて感じた。

Answers to questions I've had since I was a child and now a Mon. This theory could revolutionize health in our generations.

Very interesting book from a well informed nutritionist. I appreciated her not-so-mainstream ideas on feeding children in order to foster healthy food habits.

Thorough, helpful, analytical