Comments on: Orthorexia

By: Teri Geselle

Teri Geselle — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:42:21 +0000

The smell of salt and grease is always luring someone. Good for the parent teaching her young children not to fall prey to the constant exposure we all try to resist. Teaching children to take “no” for an answer is also very important. Asking children to stop and think should start early, even if it’s about eating a pretzel. The calorie issue may be a bit much for small children to understand unless you explain the pro’s and con’s of caloric intake.

By: tk

tk — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:27:52 +0000

Obese children and eating-disordered children are both depressing. Knowing nothing more than that the child’s mother apparently has the child counting calories to some extent, I’m not willing to criticize.

The people who are criticizing are assuming a lot that they don’t know.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:01:32 +0000

Joe, if the theory is that based on the anecdote in Jason’s post above it’s reasonable to suspect that that particular child is being taught obsessive behavior with respect to food, then I’m saying that’s a bad theory.

By: Contextualizer

Contextualizer — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:09:20 +0000

One key question: was this a really heavy kid? or a really light kid? If the kid was obese, it needs strict supervision and guidance.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:04:57 +0000

Bruce, it’s still unclear what you mean by “whatever works,” but I take it the gist of your argument is that we shouldn’t criticize people for their parenting decisions, unless of course those parenting decisions are bad enough that they cross some threshold level of wrongness. The concern of some commentators is that this type of parenting *is* likely to cause “serious health problems.” It seems we don’t actually know if this kid has or will develop health problems, but this of course means that we don’t know that the kid doesn’t have health problems — and the theory is that teaching a child obsessive behavior w/r/t food is in fact teaching a health problem.

By: TRE

TRE — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:37:26 +0000

Jennifer is going to be harmed no matter what. If the mother is chiding a 3 or 4 year old about some pretzels, what is the likelihood the kid is going to get a truly sufficient amount of nutritious food?

[B]If[/B] she cooks, is the food likely going to be delicious and nutritious?

Lastly she picked the overused name Jennifer and likely has bad judgment in other areas as well.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:25:48 +0000

Donna B. — because it’s not your kid, that’s why. Unless the kid is having serious health problems, why do you care?

By: Donna B.

Donna B. — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:52:47 +0000

Bruce Boyden — what’s being questioned is pushing of you can’t have it because it has calories. That’s in the long run more dangerous than either giving the kid the pretzel or simply saying no, you can’t one right now.

Further, all the mother’s explaining just prolonged the argument and increases the chance that she will lose control over much more than what her child chooses to eat.

So why shouldn’t we criticize? Especially those of us who are parents?

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:43:38 +0000

A reader: By “works” I’m referring to the fact that a frazzled parent may lose any control at all over what their kid chooses to eat.

To paraphrase Judge Kozinski, I hereby advise critics of other people’s parenting techniques to chill.

By: A reader

A reader — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:45:21 +0000

Whatever works. If counting calories works for this mother, I say more power to her.

What on Earth does “works” mean in this context? That she is thin? That the child is thin?

For me, “working” means that the child is growing up to have a healthy relationship with food in which she doesn’t binge on junk food whenever she gets the opportunity, is not scared to eat healthful and nourishing food out of fear that she might get “fat,” and that her life is not controlled by an obsessive need to track, count and purge (through starvation, excessive exercise, vomiting) “unwanted” calories.

My personal experience and observation have taught me that emphasis on calories from a young age is not, in fact, likely to “work” for that value of the term. But hey, at least she’s probably not a fatty.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:08:19 +0000

Whatever works. If counting calories works for this mother, I say more power to her.

By: UNRR

UNRR — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:13:22 +0000

This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 2/28/2009, at The Unreligious Right

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:05:39 +0000

But pretzels are low-fat.

Just split it with the kid, that makes 150 calories each. They should both be able to handle that.

By: A reader

A reader — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:17:24 +0000

At least for my part, Vladimir, I wouldn’t care if the mother gave or didn’t give the kid the pretzel; it’s instilling that obsessive knowledge of and need to keep track of calories at such a young age I think is scary.

You are, however, probably correct that someone would judge her no matter what she did. Such is life, I suppose.

By: Vladimir

Vladimir — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:47:41 +0000

I don’t know about this. I’m reminded of the Fool in King Lear, who gets whipped for speaking, gets whipped for keeping silent, and gets whipped for holding his peace. If you do what that parent did, you’re fomenting eating disorders. Bad. If you give your kid the pretzel, you’re serving junk food — and good nutrition starts early. Bad, bad. You just can’t win! Poor parents, criticized no matter what they do.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:43:05 +0000

What gets me is that the analogy with a bank totally breaks down, especially for little kids. Sure, have the extra 300 calories. Then run around the house a few dozen times. Problem solved.

By: AF

AF — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:44:15 +0000

Are you sure it was Jennifer and not Madison?

By: A reader

A reader — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:02:41 +0000

Man, it breaks my heart how little some parents worry about setting their daughters up for a lifetime of eating disorders. Probably because that’s what they’ve experienced themselves, so it seems like the status quo.

By: A.W.

A.W. — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:58:40 +0000

At 3 to 4 she is having that much of a discusssion.

I believe in parents explaining their decisions, too, but not at 3 or 4.