CHILDREN AND WEIGHT:
Helping Without Harming

Over the last hundred years, the medical establishment has prescribed a plethora of often dangerous and sometimes lethal treatments to promote weight loss in “the name of health." Tragically, heightened fears elicited by recent government proclamations about the “childhood obesity epidemic” are driving caring, concerned parents to allow their children to be subjected to these same dangers also “in the name of health.” In addition, we are asking schools to weigh children and send notes home to parents when these children are deemed to have a “weight problem.”  Children are faced with constant haranguing about the dangers of fat and an overload of media images of often grossly underweight celebrity role models. Growing efforts by the “food police” to promote “healthy eating” have led to organized searches through children’s lunch boxes and prohibition of cupcakes from birthday parties. Taken together these types of measures threaten to do irreparable damage to both the physiological and psychological health of our children. The time is long past due for us to critically examine the premises on which the ‘childhood obesity crisis” is built and develop approaches that will help our children without harming them.This presentation will critically examine the research and debunk the myths relating to children's weight and their health. A prescription for helping children to live healthier, happier lives by caring well for the bodies they presently have will be presented.

Jonathan Robison, Ph.D., MS
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
Phone: (517) 507-0287
Fax: (517) 507-0265
e-mail: robisonj@msu.edu
www.jonrobison.net