Weight Neutral, not Weight Loss: Kids Dig Food paediatric dietitians provide a common-sense and compassionate approach to supporting children in larger bodies

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

In a world where weight and appearance dominate discussions about health, it can be challenging to know how to support your child’s health and wellbeing when they are living in a bigger body. This can be especially worrying if you notice either or both of these things:

• your child or young person’s weight increasing more quickly than you think it should be, or;
• you notice your child’s body shape changing or getting bigger

Other reasons parents seek help from a dietitian for their child’s high or increasing weight are:

• You have been told by your Doctor or another health professional that your child needs to “lose weight”.
• Your child is experiencing weight-based bullying or teasing.
• You have lived experience of being in a larger body yourself, and want things to be different for your child.
• Eating *healthy* foods and maintaining a *healthy* weight is really important to you, and so it’s difficult to understand why your child’s weight is higher or their body is bigger than you expect.
• You have had a complex relationship with food through your life, and want things to be different for your child.

We understand why parents think *weight loss* will help.

We are surrounded by a culture that tells us all that we need to lose weight or be in a smaller body to be healthy. Terms such as *overweight*, *obesity*, and *obesity epidemic* are used to convince us that being in a smaller body will make us healthier. Our everyday society, on television, in the media, through marketing and advertising, social media, and the people around us constantly reinforce the message that good health is achieved by reaching a number on a scale or tape measure, steps taken, calories eaten (or not eaten). This is Diet Culture, and it is harmful to the health of all people.

As paediatric dietitians, what we know to be true from extensive research, clinical evidence and the lived experience of humans (regardless of their body weight, shape or size) is that focusing on weight loss as the primary indicator of health does not make kids or grown-ups healthier. In fact, it damages our relationship with food.

Why should we focus on Health not Weight?

Kids Dig Food Paediatric Dietitians want you to know that your child’s body is not wrong, and it’s not a problem to be fixed. In fact, healthy bodies come in a vast spectrum of sizes and shapes.

The Butterfly Foundation does a fantastic job of explaining why it’s so important we focus on Health not Weight in this excerpt from their article below. This is especially important for our kids, who are just developing their relationship with food, body and self.

“Health and wellbeing are multi-faceted and determined by so much more than your body weight. A person’s health, eating and exercise behaviours should not be assumed based on their size or appearance.

While having a higher body weight may place a person at risk of experiencing a range of metabolic health problems, it’s also important to note that if a person is engaged in healthy and balanced behaviours, they can be healthy in a larger body.

Conversely, it should not be assumed that a person of a lower body weight is healthy. In fact, for someone with an eating disorder the very opposite may be true and they can be at real risk of physical and mental health implications.”

What are Diet Culture and Weight Stigma and what do they have to do with my child’s weight?

What is Diet Culture?

The Butterfly Foundation conducted research in 2020 and found that …diet culture refers to a set of ever-changing myths about food and bodies, promoting the idea that one’s body weight automatically equals health and that foods can be simplistically categorised as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It also comprises a moral hierarchy of bodies that preferences the thin-ideal while masking a fear of fat.

What is Weight Stigma?

“Weight bias, sometimes also called fatphobia or weight stigma, describes the negative attitudes and stereotypes surrounding and attached to larger bodies. Further, fatphobia is an abnormal and irrational fear of being fat or being around fat people.”

Check out the full article to find out more about Weight Stigma: What is weight bias and fatphobia, and how can we challenge it?

FYI… Butterfly Foundation are the national charity for anyone in Australia impacted by eating disorders and body image issues, as well as the families, friends and communities who support them. They have a great article called Diet culture 101: What is it and what can we do about it?, and others, if you’d like to better understand Diet Culture.

We understand how difficult it can be to support kids to embrace their own unique body and those of others when we all live in a society where Diet Culture and Weight Stigma is rife.

If Weight isn’t the focus, what is?

You are likely wondering: How will a Kids Dig Food Dietitian support my child and family if we aren’t focussing on weight?

Kids Dig Food dietitians support parents and caregivers to firstly discover if their child is growing predictably through a comprehensive assessment. If they are growing predictably, we support you to continue to help them to do so. Sometimes kids are growing faster or slower than parents, caregivers, doctors and health professionals are expecting – for example, they may be experiencing weight escalation. In these cases, we support parents and caregivers to discover the often MANY reasons contributing to unexpected weight escalation. We provide support that allows the child to achieve predictable growth whilst preserving and enhancing body acceptance. PLEASE NOTE: We do not recommend restricting food portions or placing children on low energy/calorie/kilojoule diets.

Kids Dig Food Dietitians provide Weight Neutral care through a Non-Diet approach to your child and family when high weight is a concern.

• We believe every child deserves to have a positive relationship with food and their body, free from the pressures of Diet Culture.
• We support your child to develop a peaceful relationship with food and eating by helping you understand all the impacting factors on their eating, and by prioritising your child’s relationship with themselves, their body and YOU!

We firmly believe these are the key ingredients for good health and wellbeing!

Our comprehensive Nutrition and Feeding Assessment includes:

1. Understanding your child’s growth: Ideally from birth, parents’ growth/family growth patterns, find out if a child is growing predictably or if there is any evidence of weight escalation at any point in the child’s life. Any periods of poor growth or feeding concerns in early life. If yes, we take time to understand why this happened.
2. Understanding what, when, where and how your child and family eats: we want to deeply understand your family rhythms and routines.
3. Exploring parent and caregiver beliefs about food, eating and bodies; and understanding the goals you have in seeking help for your child.

Once we complete the Assessment phase of our work together, and have a deep understanding of your child’s history and your family’s eating style and rhythms, we move on to problem-solving and wondering with you. We collaborate with you to develop strategies that suit your family and your child’s needs. This can include:

• Understanding how to support your child at eating times
• Understanding and supporting the ebb and flow of your child’s appetite
• Learning how to create a positive family food environment that feels good to you and your child
• Supporting you to understand and address food challenges such as: sneaking or hiding food, concern when your child eats large quantities of food, concern about your child’s body size or shape, frequent demands for food.
• Supporting your child’s feeding differences.

We may also recommend you seek support from other allied health services such as: Psychologist, Family Counsellor, Physiotherapist, Exercise Physiologist or Occupational Therapist.

How a Weight Neutral and Non-Diet Approach supports our Neurodivergent kids and ALL kids

There is a wealth of evidence showing that neurodivergent children, including those who are autistic, have ADHD, are gifted, or highly sensitive can be deeply impacted by restrictive eating practices. Many of these children have unique feeding differences, such as rigid food preferences, sensory aversions, ritualistic eating patterns, differences in the way they experience body cues such as hunger and fullness, or difficulties with feeding skills.

What we know about weight-focused and restrictive practices to child weight concerns:

• Restrictive and weight-focused strategies often overlook the needs of neurodivergent kids.
• Rigid meal plans are not sustainable for families.
• Dieting behaviours are damaging to kids and adults alike.
• Early dieting practices are highly linked to eating disorders and disordered eating behaviours REF1.
• Restrictive approaches that limit food enjoyment, stigmatise certain foods, or seek to alter one’s perception of food hinder the food learning process.
• Labelling foods as “bad” or “good” can create unnecessary stress, worry and confusion around eating for children, fuel body dissatisfaction and can lead to life-long struggles with food and eating.
• Food restriction can also limit the opportunity to eat a variety of nutrients needed for growth and development.

A weight-centric or diet-focussed approach can negatively impact a child’s sense of safety, belonging, and self-worth and is very likely to damage a child’s relationship with food.

At Kids Dig Food, we consider each child’s individual needs and support a positive and nurturing experience of food and eating. A weight-neutral and non-diet approach fosters curiosity, autonomy and respect for the way a child learns about food and nourishing their own body.

Moving Forward Together: What you need to know before you book

If you choose to work with us to support your child with weight concerns, know that we will support your child and family in ways that will help them to:

• build a more peaceful relationship with food
• grow in ways that are “right” for their unique body
• be well nourished
• reduce body dissatisfaction
• include movement that they find enjoyable

To deliver this effective strategy and service:

1. Our first appointment is with parents and care-givers only. It’s often best to discuss sensitive topics such as your child’s weight without your child present, so we can speak freely without causing them unnecessary worry. The right time to introduce your child to your Dietitian will be decided together. If you have a teenage child who would like to come along to this first appointment, please advise our client care team at the time of booking.
2. We do not prescribe “diets” for children and do not write meal plans. We CAN and love to help with meal planning though!

Please contact our Client Care Officers on 1300 971 609 to make an appointment or you can also make a booking online via our website.

References: 

1. Bacon, L., Aphramor, L. Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift. Nutr J 10, 9 (2011). Accessed on 2/6/2025: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9

2. Gillen, M. Associations between positive body image and indicators of men’s and women’s mental and physical health, Body Image, Volume 13, 2015, pp 67-74, ISSN 1740-1445, Accessed on 2/6/2025: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.01.002

3. Tylka, Tracy L., Annunziato, Rachel A., Burgard, Deb, Daníelsdóttir, Sigrún, Shuman, Ellen, Davis, Chad, Calogero, Rachel M., The Weight-Inclusive versus Weight-Normative Approach to Health: Evaluating the Evidence for Prioritizing Well-Being over Weight Loss, Journal of Obesity, 2014, 983495, 18 pages, 2014. Accessed on 2/6/2025: https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/983495