#141: How to Respond if Your Child Says, "I feel fat," With Erin Kerns Vazquez

Rebuilding Trust With Your Body

What to say if your child ever says, “I feel fat,” or if they are called fat by kids at school or someone in their life.

Learn the do’s and don’ts of navigating these tricky conversations, whether you have small kids at home, teenagers, or even adult children.

Erin Kerns Vazquez is my guest today, and she is going to walk us through how she went from dieting since the age of 10, to wholeheartedly embracing body acceptance and intuitive eating.

Erin was bullied about her weight as a kid, and she wrote a children’s book about what messages she looks back and recognizes she needed to hear at a young age about her body. She describes the well-intentioned ways that adults in her life tried to help her “get healthier” (i.e. lose weight) to feel better about herself and to silence the bullies, and how these attempts at helping missed the mark.

It’s a powerful conversation about healing your own body image, unpacking the messages you received about your body (and bodies in general) during childhood, the way that diet culture has reinforced these messages, and what you can do to foster a healthy body image for yourself and the children in your life.

Key Takeaways

1. Beliefs about our bodies start young: The way we see our parents talking about their own bodies impacts how we feel about our own bodies, even now as adults.

2. A “healthy body image” doesn’t necessarily mean body positivity: Rather, it means that you have peace and neutrality with your body (even on the days you might wish it were different).

3. What to say (and NOT say) to your kids if they say, “I feel fat”: Be clear and confident for how you navigate these tricky conversations with your kids, as you support them in navigating body image in a weight-obsessed world.

Resources Mentioned

- Body Image Journal Prompts: Grab my FREE guide filled with journal prompts to help you heal your body image from within.

- Purchase Erin’s book “Your Body Is Never Bad” on Amazon (and don’t forget to leave a review for her on Amazon!)

- Check out Erin Vazquez’s other books on Amazon

Read the full episode transcript here.

Resources for Your Intuitive Eating Journey

• Intuitive eating education on the blog
• Work with Katy
• Explore the self-paced mini-course Stepping Off The Dieting Rollercoaster

Connect with Katy Harvey

Website: KatyHarvey.net

Instagram: @katyharvey.rd

Facebook: KatyHarveyRD

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