Episode Details

How do you protect children from unhelpful food and body talk when celebrations revolve around eating and family gatherings? What can parents do when well-meaning relatives, social media, or conversations about weight loss creep into festive meals?

 

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr Anna Colton, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and eating disorder specialist, to explore how parents can manage food and diet chat around children during the festive season. Drawing on questions sent in by parents, we talk about navigating comments from grandparents shaped by decades of diet culture, handling conversations about weight loss injections, and the powerful messages children absorb about bodies, worth and self-control – often without adults realising.

 

Together, we reflect on why commenting on children's eating can undermine their ability to trust their bodies, how to set boundaries with family members, and why pre-empting difficult conversations can make such a difference. This episode offers guidance to help parents protect their children's relationship with food, not just at Christmas, but all year round.

 

More from Dr Colton https://www.dranna.co.uk/