Childhood Obesity: Is 7 Too Young to Diet?

[Northerner]

When Dara-Lynn Weiss's daughter Bea went for her annual checkup at age seven, the pediatrician pronounced her obese. In one year, Bea had gained 23 pounds and her blood pressure had bumped up significantly.

"This was a health crisis," Weiss said.

Weiss's solution was to put Bea on a calorie-restricted diet, an experience she chronicled first in a magazine article then in a bestselling book, "The Heavy."

Weiss said her decision to slash portion sizes, place limits on even healthy foods like fruit, and occasionally replace high calorie fare with Diet Coke and low fat Cool Whip, drew immediate judgment from other parents.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/childhood-obesity-young-diet/story?id=18704647

 

[LeeLee]

Whilst I can't really comment on a book I haven't read, I have dreadful memories of being the fat child in a family. I was put on a diet while the rest of the family ate foods that were forbidden to me. It would have been easier to take if the family were treated as a whole, with everyone eating more healthily. As it was, my sister remembers sneaking half of her desserts to give me.