Real Kids Come in All Sizes: Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem [Paperback]

Kathy Kater (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2004

Confronting two of this country’s fastest growing health problems—body image and weight concerns among children and teens—this practical guide shows parents how to help their children maintain body esteem and make healthy choices a routine part of their lives.

At a time when they should feel secure in their body’s growth, too many American children become anxious about size and weight and begin to eat in ways that contribute to the very problems they hope to avoid. Obesity, negative body image, and eating disorders are extremely difficult to reverse once established, and can be devastating to the self-esteem of developing bodies and egos.

Long overdue, Real Kids Come in All Sizes challenges the toxic myths that promote body-image and weight concerns in our culture. Building a foundation for lifelong health, parents can use these lessons to help their children:
—Eat well and be active
—Accept size diversity in themselves and others
—Value health and well-being over image
—Be comfortable in their developing bodies
—Resist damaging cultural messages
—Develop a strong identity and choose realistic role models

Editorial Reviews

Review

“I LOVE this book . . . Real Kids Come in All Sizes should be required reading for all new parents . . . [It] brings insight and understanding to an issue that is complicated and perplexing for most of us. It gives very practical advice and easy to follow sensible lessons.”
—Kitty Westin, President, The Anna Westin Foundation

“Real Kids Come in All Sizes is an essential tool for adults who care about kids in our marketing-saturated and appearance-first culture. We can fight for our children’s souls and win!”
—Joe Kelly, President, Dads and Daughters®, author of Dads and Daughters

From the Inside Flap

Confronting two of this country's fastest growing health problems—body image and weight concerns among children and teens—this practical guide shows parents how to help their children maintain body esteem and make healthy choices a routine part of their lives.

At a time when they should feel secure in their body's growth, too many American children become anxious about size and weight and begin to eat in ways that contribute to the very problems they hope to avoid. Obesity, negative body image, and eating disorders are extremely difficult to reverse once established, and can be devastating to the self-esteem of developing bodies and egos.

Long overdue, Real Kids Come in All Sizes challenges the toxic myths that promote body-image and weight concerns in our culture. Building a foundation for lifelong health, parents can use these lessons to help their children:
—Eat well and be active
—Accept size diversity in themselves and others
—Value health and well-being over image
—Be comfortable in their developing bodies
—Resist damaging cultural messages
—Develop a strong identity and choose realistic role models

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767916085
• ISBN-13: 978-0767916080
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathy Kater is a psychotherapist who has specialized in treatment and prevention of body image, eating, fitness and weight concerns for over 30 years. Frustrated the the progress made in understanding these problems has not resulted in effective prevention, she authored Healthy Body Image: Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too, a primary prevention curriculum for developing children and teens in 1998. This manual, published by the National Eating Disorder Association, was fully update in 2005 to more fully incorporate concerns about rising rates of obesity. Healthy Body Image was among the first of its kind to demonstrate significant measurable improvement in weight-related attitudes and reduced risk factors for disordered eating in pubescent children. It is recommended by the U.S.D.H. Office of Women's Health in their BodyWise information packet for educators. Kater's second book, Real Kids Come in All Sizes; Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem (Broadway Books/Random House, 2004; Spanish Edition, 2006) was written as a companion guide for parents.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's never too late!, January 1, 2005

By 

P. Killeen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real Kids Come in All Sizes: Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem (Paperback)

It's never too late to be a positive influence on a child's body esteem! This wonderful, highly organized and simple book shows us how to practice and promote positive attitudes and behaviors that will help children, and adults, develop a healthy body esteem. Whether a child is 2 years old, or 20 or 40, her/his body esteem can be influenced by those people she/he cares most about. The 10 essential lessons layed out in this text show us ways to promote healthy, fun eating, regular exericise and a positive body image. I found that this book not only helped me be a good role model for the children I influence, but it also helped me develop my own healthy body esteem!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Resource For Parents, December 22, 2004

By 

Steven J. Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real Kids Come in All Sizes: Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem (Paperback)

Kathy Kater's book is full of clearly-written, practical advice for parents who are concerned about their child's body image. She writes not only from the perspective of a therapist and educator, but from her own experiences as a parent of a son and daughter. Each of the book's "ten lessons" contain suggestions that can be readily integrated into the situations and conversations parents typically encounter. The book is clear, concise and well-organized. It is easy to pick up later and locate information when you need to. I have two teenage daughters, and I wish the book would have been available ten years ago!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary thinking!, July 14, 2005

By 

Adam K. Fetcher (Northfield, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Real Kids Come in All Sizes: Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem (Paperback)

Kater's book finally gives parents and educators alike the long-overdue confidence they need to raise girls within a world that is always pressuring them to "shape up" or forget about being happy. This book can serve as a teaching tool for young parents, a welcome eye-opener for parents of adolescents, or, for any reader, a fascinating new look at girls' enormous struggles with maintaining body image perspective in the face of our too-often unhealthy mediacentric culture. Kater is a proven leader in her field and someone who we must listen to if the horrible trends of eating disorders and rock-bottom body esteem are to be reversed.