How to Talk to Your Child About Body Image

When your kid comes home from school and says they hate their stomach, that nobody wants to be their friend because they’re “fat,” or that everyone in their class is better-looking than they are, you’d probably do anything to help them see what you see—which means the reassurance practically flies out of your mouth. “You’re beautiful!” “You’re perfect!” How could they possibly think otherwise?That impulse comes from a good place—but it can shut down the very conversation you want to have, says Dr. Whitney Casares, a pediatrician in Portland, Ore., and author of Raising Body-Confident Kids. “It tells a child, don’t feel what you’re feeling,” she says. Instead, start by making room for those feelings. “The goal is to help kids feel heard first and really to keep the door open.”We asked experts exactly what to say when your child is struggling with how they look.“Tell me more about that.”Before you can help, you need to know what you’re responding to. Did a classmate make a rude comment? Did your child see something triggering online? Or is their body feeling unfamiliar as they go through puberty? Those possibilities call for different conversations, Casares says. A kid who says every...