More than 23 million children and teens in the U.S. are obese or overweight, but putting a child on a diet can be a delicate subject. NBC’s Matt Lauer reports and Dara-Lynn Weiss, author of “The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet,” talks about the controversy she caused by writing about helping her 7-year-old lose weight.
By Lisa Flam
The Manhattan mother who caused an uproar last year with a controversial Vogue article about the strict diet she had her young, obese daughter follow says that her now 9-year-old little girl has stuck to her healthy lifestyle and is doing great.
Shes doing fantastically well, Dara-Lynn Weiss told Matt Lauer on TODAY Tuesday. Were very happy to report shes maintained a healthy weight. Shes really made positive changes in how she approaches this issue.
In the April issue of Vogue, Weiss wrote about her daughter, “Bea” (not her real name), who at age 7, was 4-foot, 4-inches tall and weighed 93 pounds. At those measurements, the girl would have had a body-mass index of 24.2, considered obese for a child, according to a child and teen BMI calculator[1] from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
{{percent}}%
({{numVotes}} votes)
{{/data.answerData}}
In the article, Weiss wrote of a girl who constantly complained of hunger and of her own public efforts to keep her daughter on her diet.
Weiss faced criticism for the public nature of her efforts. She wrote of the times she had heated discussions with her daughter at parties about why the girl couldn’t have both cake and cookies. Weiss wrote [2]of deriding her daughter for eating an inappropriate snack at a friend’s house, and of denying her dinner after consuming hundreds of calories at her schools French Heritage Day.” After a year of diet and exercise, Bea grew 2 inches and lost 16 pounds to reach a healthy weight.
Since then, Bea has gained an appropriate amount of weight as shes grown, said Weiss, who acknowledges her own longtime struggle with food and weight. It was interesting, after spending a year trying to always lose weight to have a year where it was healthy to gain weight, she said of her daughter.
Weiss said she understood the criticism of her public efforts to keep her daughter from eating certain foods, rather than just letting it happen and dealing with it at home, and says she doesnt have to do it as often now.
I didnt come to this situation saying, Well, were just going to police this in every public situation, but as the parent of an obese child you become aware of how frequently theyre presented with challenges, Weiss said. And at age 7, they cant necessarily be responsible for responding appropriately.
I dont have to intervene as much because she has learned limits, she said Tuesday.
In her new memoir, The Heavy: A mother, a Daughter, A Diet,[3] Weiss writes of her own outlook on food and weight, and says she failed to get her daughters weight under control for longer than she should have.
Though the rest of my family had a seemingly healthy relationship to food, I was constantly battling weight gain and asking my mother to lock up the peanut-butter jar and the omnipresent box of Entenmanns pecan danish ring, according to an excerpt Lauer read on the air Tuesday. Whether I weighed in at 105 pounds or 145 pounds hardly mattered – I hated how my body looked and devoted an inordinate amount of time trying to change it.
Weiss acknowledges her own issues kept her from dealing with her daughters weight for years.
It was an extremely intimidating hurdle for me personally to know that I kind of came to this issue with this baggage and it kept me from intervening for many more years than was probably appropriate because I was so afraid I was going to bring my own issues to bear on Bea, she said.
She defended her issues with food, saying “a lot of women share them.”
I would say the majority of women have some nervous relationship to food and some dissatisfaction with their body,” Weiss said.
And at the same time these women are moms and they have to figure out how to teach their children to eat well and to love their bodies when theyre healthy and to help them when theyre not healthy, she said.
Her book comes as about one-third of the nations children are obese or overweight, and as The Biggest Loser, NBCs weight-loss reality program, features young teenager contestants for the first time.
Still, one expert says parents need to use caution in how they speak to their kids about being overweight.
When a childs weight is compromising their health, a parent is going to go into action, but we need to be very careful with what we say and what we do, child development specialist Robyn Silverman told TODAY. We dont want a child to look at food as the enemy.
Related:
School program helps 11 students lose over 750 pounds[4]
Cute or cruel? Parents debate piercing babies’ ears[5]
Colicky babies may have wrong gut bacteria[6]
References
- ^ according to a child and teen BMI calculator (apps.nccd.cdc.gov)
- ^ wrote (www.today.com)
- ^ The Heavy: A mother, a Daughter, A Diet, (www.today.com)
- ^ School program helps 11 students lose over 750 pounds (todayhealth.today.com)
- ^ Cute or cruel? Parents debate piercing babies’ ears (www.today.com)
- ^ Colicky babies may have wrong gut bacteria (todayhealth.today.com)
Resources:
Be Well On Your Way: Journey to a More Authentic You (Paperback) tagged “healthy lifestyle” 88 times
Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:25:58 GMT
Be Well On Your Way: Journey to a More Authentic You (Paperback)By Maiysha T Clairborne MD Click for more info Customer Rating:
Be Well On Your Way: Journey to a More Authentic You (Paperback)By Maiysha T Clairborne MD Click for more info Customer Rating: 
Customer tags: mind body spirit(90), self-help(90), empowerment(89), personal growth(88), healthy lifestyle(88), health(88), healthy living(85), healthy life(85), personal development(81), relationships(79), self esteem(35), self-improvement(35) Life On Your Terms: 7 Steps To a More Empowered You (Paperback) tagged “healthy lifestyle” 88 times
Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:27:19 GMT
Life On Your Terms: 7 Steps To a More Empowered You (Paperback)By Maiysha T Clairborne MD Click for more info Customer Rating: 
Customer tags: self-help(91), empowerment(89), health(89), healthy living(88), healthy lifestyle(88), healthy life(87), personal development(86), mind body spirit(86), personal growth(84), relationships(81), self-improvement(41), self esteem(40) IEOOC is Supporting a Healthy Lifestyle – Grocery Headquarters
In December, Idaho-E. Oregon Onion Committee (USA Onions) Shippers worked with a Boise, Idaho based hospital, St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, to bring their mobile mammogram unit to various onion packing … http://www.groceryheadquarters.com/2013/01/ieooc-is-supporting-a-healthy-lifestyle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ieooc-is-supporting-a-healthy-lifestyle
Stress Management for a Healthy Lifestyle Nutritious Eats
Hawaii-1-9. We are on day 3 of the DietBet I am hosting. I am so exited that over 30 people joined, making the pot $875! I know that I have been very aware of what I have been putting in my mouth. I usually eat healthy, but … http://www.nutritiouseats.com/stress-management-for-a-healthy-lifestyle/
BOOK- COOKING WITH THE 14 SUPER FOODS! SIMPLE RECIPES FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
2013-01-10T22:11:11.000Z
End Date: Saturday Feb-9-2013 14:11:11 PST
Buy It Now for only: $2.00
Buy It Now | Add to watch list
Wellness : Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle by Lori Waite Turner, Brent Q.
2013-01-11T23:01:19.000Z
End Date: Friday Jan-18-2013 15:01:19 PST
Buy It Now for only: $45.00
Buy It Now | Bid now | Add to watch list
You Can Help Your Child Get More Exercise By Following These 5 Tips
Does your child get enough exercise? You can get your children more active with these 5 fun parenting tips.
Better Health in Four Steps
In just four steps, you can improve your health for the better and this article will show you how. The steps below are bite-sized nuggets of health information you can actually use to live a healthy life. Here we go… Nutritional supplements are the first step As far as I’m concerned, they are very important […]
Top 4 Nutrition Predictions in the New Year
Several food and nutrition trends were in the spotlight this year, including the continued rise of plant-based diets, non-dairy ice creams and superfoods that are blasts from the past — legumes, apples and cabbage. It can be easy to experience nutrition whiplash in the New Year, but don’t be a victim. Get a jump-start on […]
Want to lose weight? Research proves a big breakfast is the first step
If you want to lose weight, you’re not alone. More than half of Americans desire to shed pounds, according to Gallup. This goal inspires people to take action in many ways, from increasing exercise to modifying meals. One thing many people do is skip breakfast in order to lower calorie intake. While this may seem […]
