Ep 86 Understanding Your Child’s Growth Pattern & Navigating Weight Comments at the Doctor’s Office with Riley Peterson RDN

Many of our interactions and experiences in childhood contribute to the body image we have as adults. In today’s episode, Pediatric Registered Dietitian Riley Peterson joins us to share her advice on raising body-positive kids.

Riley fell into her line of work after her experience working with children during her time as a clinical dietitian in a hospital. She noticed that a lot of parents & doctors alike were concerned with their children’s height, weight, and body image and can see how these stresses were not serving the parents or the child. 

Since then, Riley has dedicated her work to helping parents foster food neutrality and body positivity in their children.

In this episode, Riley shares the preventative measures that parents can take to avoid triggering a negative body image in their children, how they can teach their kids about health in a neutral manner, and what they can do to foster body positivity in their kids. 

She also discusses the double-edged sword that is the BMI percentile charts, and how parents can approach and navigate that conversation with their children & doctor.

In this episode, we cover:

• [2:45] How Riley got into her line of work
• [5:03] What Riley noticed was impacting negative body image in her clinical work with children
• [9:11] The double-edged sword that is BMI percentile charts
• [12:38] Preventative measures that parents can take to avoid fostering negative body image in their children
• [21:43] How to teach your children about the neutrality of food and health
• [32:12] How parents can foster body positivity and food neutrality with their children

 

Riley’s Resources: 

• Follow Riley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raisingbodypositivekids/ 
• Riley’s website: https://raisingbodypositivekids.com/
  
  

Rachel’s Resources:

• Follow Rachel on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dietitian.rachelgoodman/
  
  
• Are you a Food Freedom Professional seeking to boost her coaching confidence with clients using the Intuitive Eating approach? Get immediate access to the FREE video training, 3 Steps to Boost Your Coaching Confidence: https://rachelgoodmanrd.kartra.com/page/food-freedom-for-professionals
  
  
• Want to enjoy your fav foods AND feel good, too? Join Rachel’s online course Living Free: rachelgoodnutrition.com/program  
  
  
• Want to share your thoughts or feedback on this episode? Contact Rachel at  rachel@rachelgoodnutrition.com