I hope this letter finds you well.
I know this comes with a more jarring subject line than usual. It is not click bait to get you to open and read. It’s real to protecting the quality of life of the children in your sphere of influence.
Ragen Chastain and other professionals following the science (or lack there of) in the industries that profit from people continuing to pursue intentional weight loss, with urgency, have been alerting us of the most recent development in the American Pediatric Association.
Get this: it’s okay to put kids as young as 2 on drugs and rigorous “lifestyle” management to attempt to cause weight loss.
Can this culture get more depraved? My trauma-trained mind goes to the reality that if you can traumatize as young as possible, the result will be a very controllable adult.
I highly recommend you subscribe to Ragen’s substack so you can catch up on the last couple of weeks developments and to get the scientific data on eating competence versus putting kids or adults on diets. She also discusses facts about the financial conflict of interest from the APA board members to push these interventions in doctors, teachers and parents.
I don’t have a lot more to say (well I do but it will just be a mad/sad rant).
I’ll leave you with a quote from Ragen’s most recent post
“Weight loss as a ‘solution’ to weight stigma”.
This is unconscionable. Regardless of what someone believes about weight and health, the message that children (as young as 2!) should solve stigma by undertaking intensive and dangerous interventions that risk quality of life moves beyond inappropriate to disgusting, especially when one is perpetuating weight stigma, as these guidelines (and the weight loss industry talking points that are repeated herein) do.”
Please, if you are truly interested in children not suffering the same bullying without support you had, disordered eating and disembodied living you had to recover from, learn to protect them with your conscience and voice wherever a child isn’t being seen in their full experience with health, food and weight. This protection will also help heal any parts of you that needed this in there past too.
If you need support in learning how to verbalize and advocate for children and re-parent yourself, even through the fear of rejection, please reach out at www.tracybrownrd.com/get-started
Warmly,
Tracy and team