Rescuing the Emotional Lives of Our Overweight Children: What Our Kids Go Through-And How We Can Help

by Sylvia B. Rimm and Eric Rimm

Book Overview

Helping your child through a weight problem doesn't have to be a long, difficult process. In Rescuing the Emotional Lives of Overweight Children , Dr. Sylvia Rimm, one of America's most trusted family... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579548504
• ISBN13: 9781579548506
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

There's more to it than taking away sweets . . .

Have you ever noticed that "skinny" people say you just need to quit eating fattening foods and exercise more! Well, there is more to it than that. This book goes into the emotional side of why some kids eat too much & what they endure because of it. My daughter and I both struggle with weight. We've tried limiting what she eats & getting her to exercise more. However, the more we pressed it, the more she saw it as a punishment & an attack on her self esteem. I just wasn't sure how to help her emotionally. There's such a fine line between saying, "You're unacceptable as you are - you need to change" and "You're a wonderful person no matter your weight". This book goes into how to find that happy medium. This is the first book that I've felt strongly about reviewing. I have no problems giving it the full 5 stars. I thought it would be one to read & pass along to my friends. However, I'm keeping mine to reference again & buying another to pass along.

Do we want them to want to be thin?

This is an excellent book, and one that should be read by anyone who deals with overweight children, as teacher, parent, physician or psychologist. It is well written, with many instructive and poignant vignettes. Having said that, there are some negatives. The central dilemma in helping the overweight child is a conflict between making the child feel better and making the child thinner. The track record of treatments to make them thinner is poor. Sometimes they work but they involve convincing the child of how desirable it is to be thin. The more convinced the child becomes of the desirability of thinness the worse it feels. Rimm touches on this problem in her earlier chapters, especially in describing her argument with her son the epidemiologist, but does not resolve the issue. Cigarettes, marihuana and alcohol are barely mentioned. This may be because of her of her focus in the earlier chapters on her own important and groundbreaking work, which was with middle schoolers. I did not think the chapters on treatment were truly evidence-based although she has many good and useful ideas. She relies on secondary sources and on intuition and anecdotal evidence. It is presumably outside her stated purpose to offer specific dietary recommendations, but she does, in fact, make some suggestions. She might as well have gone the whole hog (sorry) and provided diet sheets rather than scientifically dubious and half-hearted tips about eating three meals a day and "healthy snacks." The use of diet pills is not mentioned. These seem to be taboo for writers on pediatric weight problems, even though the same medications are widely prescribed to make naughty children behave better (with growth stunting regarded as an unwanted side effect).

From The Critics

From The Critics Library JournalWhile many manuals address how to help children combat weight problems through diet, exercise, and family lifestyle changes, none has tackled in-depth their emotional lives until now. Child psychologist Rimm (See Jane Win) compiles results from her national survey of middle-school children, personal interviews, case studies, and other international research to help readers understand the psychological well-being of overweight children. After demonstrating the extent of this public health epidemic, Rimm outlines how these children feel about their poor social interactions, low school achievement, lack of athletic prowess, and troubling family relationships. In many ways, the results are not profound. Still, addressing the emotional aspects of this issue is paramount to the future of these children and to the future of American public health (as discussed in Chapter 2). Drawing on her findings, Rimm provides an important six-step rescue plan to guide parents in helping their overweight children overcome discrimination and acquire a healthier lifestyle that will lead to greater achievement and higher personal expectations. Strongly recommended for all libraries;