Book Review: The Body Image Survival Guide
Watching a family drop off their daughter at the Victorian –
Eating Disorder Treatment is heart breaking. Emotions are high; crying,
screaming and bargaining are all quite familiar. Our staff calms the parents
and client reminding them that they are making a wise decision to seek help for
this deadly mental illness. It is a scenario every parent dreads –
acknowledging their child is sick and in need of professional help. Many
question if anything could have been done to prevent the eating disorder? A genetic and social disease, preventing eating disorders is hard to quantify. However, a new book
titled, The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents by Marci Warharft-Nadler, eating
disorder survivor and Certified Personal Trainer provides several preventative tools to navigate a child towards a healthy body image.
The Body Image Survival Guide is broken down into chapters
addressing issues for every age group:
- Ages 0-3
- Ages 4-8
- Ages 9-12
- Age 13 and up
As well as how to address body image in a variety of
scenarios:
- Body image issues with boys
- Building self-esteem
- How to help an overweight child
- When parents need to lose weight
- Post-pregnancy dieting
- Role modeling positive body image
- The dangers of negative body image
- Media literacy
My favorite thing about the book is the way Nadler breaks up
the chapters with real questions from parents. The “Dear Abby” format of the
book quickly makes it seem as if Nadler is simply one parent talking to
another. I highly recommend The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents to
parents, teachers and school counselors.
- Author, Marci Warhaft-Nadler
Eating Disorder Self Test. Take the EAT-26 self test to see if you might have eating disorder symptoms that might require professional evaluation. All answers are confidential.