Children as young as eight are developing eating disorders and six year-old girls are complaining that they look too fat.
'Body image' has become such a big issue that shockingly, three quarters of seven to eleven year olds would like to change something about their appearance.
Nicky Hutchinson is a behaviour expert and is also the co-author of 'Body Image in the Primary School'. She says both teachers and parents can play a vital role in helping children develop healthy attitudes towards how their appearance. Mums should avoid asking: 'Does my bum look big in this?' and should focus on the positives of their own shape as well as those of their children. At the same time, she says that there is a need to introduce the subject with under 11s in the classroom. Work in this area has traditionally focused on adolescents yet anxieties about appearance often develop at a much earlier age.I Want To Be ThinnerNicky and her co-author Chris Calland began looking seriously at ways of approaching the body image problem after an Ofsted survey of 150,000 children in 2008 found that by the age of 10 a third of girls and 22% of boys cited their bodies as their main source of worry. A 2010 survey of over 1000 girls by Girlguiding UK showed that nearly three quarters of 7 - 11 year olds would change something about their appearance and by the ages of 10 and 11, one in eight wanted to be thinner
'Children face exposure to the media on a far greater scale than ever before,' says Nicky. 'They watch up to 40,000 adverts every year. Although there are initiatives to address body image with adolescents, we were aware that there was very little available to support younger children. Primary schools have a critical role in helping them develop a healthy body image through positive intervention.'
'When we watch television or look at magazines with our children we should encourage them to question the images they see,' says Chris. "We should reassure our children about their appearance and talk positively about them. It's important not to make negative comments about their weight or over-emphasise the importance of looks.
'We shouldn't make negative comments about other people's physical appearance or complain about 'fat' or ugly' parts of our body in their hearing. At this young age children's ideas about themselves, their bodies and their place in society are forming and developing. The lessons in the book focus on self esteem and aim to raise children's awareness of the pressures they are exposed to on a daily basis. They are encouraged to think about their qualities and skills, to recognise and celebrate the unique nature of human beings and ultimately to question how they see themselves and others and how that might be influenced by the world around them.'
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MArch 2011 | 
30 Something and the Clock is Ticking
