Maggie Goes on A Diet: Controversial Children's Book Aimed at Overweight Kids, plus Keith...

This book is self-published, and if we ignore it, it'll go away.

Like girls need a message that their whole life will be better if they just lose weight. That's what's really important.

And the genetic fatties? Just one more reason to feel like crap about themselves because they are obviously just not doing it right.

I was  put on a 300  calorie a day diet at eleven by a modeling agency ..  I was naive ( and hopeful )  enough to folow it  for three EXCRUCIATING long weeks  .... where  every time I closed my eyes I dreamed of FEASTS  .... then  a girl  in the agency taught me how to PUKE .

that bulimia lasted  twenty years .


 I never grewan INCH after that diet .... GRRRRR  

I think theres so much pressure on girls to  conform  to an untenable body type ALREADY ... I dont know .  I myself  never ate junk food -  just too much REALLY HEALTHY food .  I was an ATHLETE  .

Maybe it was my undiagnosed hiatal hernia , maybe it was emotional eating for comfort .. maybe it was genetics ...  but i got BIG  when everyone around mewas  small and lithe and graceful .  I was a lummox !   I HATED  it ... 

I ve lived on  the diet of " eating as little  as U can stand "  ALL  MY LIFE  .  Would a BOOK  havehelped ?!!  Yeah RIGHT ...
 

My daughter is 11 and 5'1 and 125 pounds which puts her in the 95% 0verweight. She has always been on the chubby side. I would never buy this book, there are other self esteem building ways to help these kids. We went through a great program at the YMCA Kids Get Fit for a year. It covered nutrition at an age appropriate level, group exercise with other kids in the class and family exercise one day a week. It was three day a week commitment.
Our pediatrician stressed healthy eating and daily exercise "until you grow into your weight" she was very careful not to make her feel bad about her weight.She commended her on all her dnace classes explaining why they were so important for her health- NOT her weight.
I hated my pediatrician, all he ever did was tell my mom she must be doing something wrong, there was no reason I should of been so fat, I had to listen to this from age 6 through age 12 when I refused to go back
Why would anyone use the word diet for a child?.
Mary

I never had to put my son on a diet, he did it to himself, he was always trying to lose weight, for what reason I really never understood.  He hates fat on his body although hes attracted to curvy womyn, which somewhat amuses me.  I was put on diets as a kid and it got me to high school at a normal weight so it worked to some degree.  I didn't get MO until I was out of the house and rebelling against my diet, I should have stayed home with my mom and maybe I would never have needed surgery at all.  I was determined when my son was born to make food a non priority to him, I didn't bake cookies and I never ate bad things in front of him, I tried to make food into something you had to do instead of something you enjoy doing.  But I doubt anything I did really did anything, he was genetically designed to be thin like his father.  Diet enforced by others typically don't work, but if this kid chose it and did it for herself thats perfectly fine.

Well, statistically speaking, aren't 90+% of the "very overweight" girls going to fail to lose and keep off enough weight  to become "a soccer star" (or in other words achieve and maintain a healthy weight)?

Gee, they're only 7 years old, so I guess they need their own unachievable "role models."  ^?^ Now, even freakin' made-up Maggie can lose weight and have a happy ending!  What the heck is wrong with me? I can't lose  a lot of weight and keep it off.  I guess I only deserve an unhappy ending.

The premise of this book is a nightmare.  Pity the poor poor child who ever has the misfortune to crack it's spine.  Shame upon any adult who intentionally exposes any child to this trash unless it is to illustrate the concept "rubbish" with respect to children's' literature. 

I'm thinking, "No, thank you," Dr. Ablow and Mr. Kramer.

What a kettle of fish we've opened here! I have not read the book so I don't feel I can criticise it however, I can say that I am very familiar with what a weight problem can do to a child and his/her sense of self esteem.
I was ridiculed,  beaten up (well mostly I just sat on them and crushed them so I usually won out!) and made an example of in class (of what poor eating habits can bring  you to)(See this child is eating like a pig and not eating normal foods, is basically what they pointed out here) now I might also add that SOME of my problem(s) with weight are  hereditary and chemical (hormone imbalances) in nature so my eating habits were just about the same as my normal/underweight siblings. (Thank goodness for surgery today!)
But, adults were often my biggest agitators.  I had a school nurse who yelled at me for being too fat. (I was 9 years old at the time),  I used to get weighed every year in school with all my school mates.  They said your height & weight out loud and the nurse recorded it.  Well when it came to me, they "whispered" my weight which only made it much worse as all the other kids would laugh and tee hee over it and I ended up being pointed at & felt like crap!!!
So I don't know that reading a book about going on a diet , losing weight and then becoming a "star" could help a youngster. Damage is done when they are laughed at, pointed, at, ridiculed, etc. no matter how thick their skin may be!!!  He/she might relate to the character but at the same time, I probably would have resented someone presenting me with such a book.  In other words, confirming to  me  that I was fat, or just plain not a normal size.  (Remember chubby sizes anyone??  I had my own grandmother come in one day (my brother was present with all of his male friends who were teens themselves, and say, Gee Mary, I bought you some adult underpants, see these and proceeded to hold them up in front of them all.  I was totally mortified and ashamed that they were such a huge size.  Again, made to feel abnormal, huge, and deformed!!!

When they come out with a book about being normal sized and being so well adjusted from just being normal, let me know.  Perhaps it MIGHT help someone who is normal and  dreams about being "abnormal"??  Thanks for listening.  I feel better already!!

Disgusting.  I don't need to read the book.   "goes on a diet" is enough to know that this book is a huge NO- something I'd never share with my daughter.  That said, there are lots of young girls struggling with their weight.  Thankfully my own 8 year old daughter doesn't stuggle with hers (like I did at her age) but we talk about health and fitness, not weight and dieting.  That Y program mentioned above sounds perfect.  How about "Maggie Makes Healthy Choices."