system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: We shouldn’t be dismiss children who ask for weight loss tips

Children, especially young girls, are flooded with media encouraging them to be skinny. They see commercials for low fat foods, the characters in the shows they watch are skinny, they hear their parents complaining about wanting to lose weight, etc. It’s not uncommon for a young child to start to feel confused about how they “should” look and want to be skinny like the other girls. I’ve found that, the problem is, everyone is too afraid to have any kind of weight conversation with a child out of fear of encouraging unhealthy habits. While I understand the sentiment behind that, I think that it is doing more harm than good.

I was always an overweight child. When I was around 10 or 11, I started feeling really ashamed of my weight and wanting to be skinny. There was no one my age on tv who looked like me. All my friends were half my weight. My cousin who was the same age as me was always the skinny confident one. I started to feel really lost.

Whenever I would try to seek advice for weight loss, I would always get the same answer: something along the vein of, “You’re too young to worry about that stuff.” 

People don’t want kids developing eating disorders and think they should focus on “just being a kid.” The problem is that ignoring a child who is actively seeking advice will not stop them from wanting that information, they’re just going to look for it elsewhere. 

For me, my parents and teachers avoiding my questions just caused me to feel even more shame. “Other girls aren’t worried about their weight like I am, I must really be too fat... why am I different... They don’t understand...” 

I would turn to the internet to try and find advice. I found ED blogs on tumblr, quick diet tips on yahoo answers. My life spiralled. I learned unhealthy habits that led to more overeating. My self worth continued to plummet. I developed BED (which wasn’t diagnosed until I was 23). 

My view is this - It is not beneficial to ignore a child who asks for weight loss tips. If they are asking, they are not “too young to be worried about this stuff.” If they are asking, they are already worried about it. What’s more beneficial is to use it as an opportunity to teach them about food science, how weight loss and weight gain work, how different foods affect your mind and body, etc. Teach them about different body types (many kids think there is just fat and skinny - they don’t understand that people can actually have different shapes). As well, use this as an opportunity to teach the child about the importance of mental health and self acceptance. Teach them how to meditate, journal, etc. 

The reason I’m posting this is because I know that I am biased in this thought because of my own childhood. I confidently believe that we shouldn’t write off a child who asks for weight loss advice, but I also want to make sure that there is nothing in my line of thinking that may be more problematic than I realize.
gpt
Being dismissive about anything your child is concerned about is a bad parenting practice... but...

Generally speaking, you need a *different* conversation when a teenager asks for weight loss tips besides just discussing... weight loss tips.

You need to ask why they want them with an understanding of the underlying possibility of eating disorders, consideration for how growth spurts affect weight temporarily, etc., etc. And the plans really need to be focused on *appropriate* behavioral changes (if any are actually needed and it isn't just normal variation) rather than just "weight loss" (which is only rarely a good idea for teens).

I'd say that the vast majority of parents really are not qualified to be having these discussions, because the weight loss concerns and strategies of adults are just too different from the issues and recommendations suitable for teens. 

So basically, what I'd say is that these requests should, ideally and generally, be referred to a doctor rather than the parent trying to take them on.