In this episode, Colleen O’Grady talks with pediatric obesity specialist Dr. Joey Skelton about one of the most sensitive topics for parents of teens: how to address weight and eating habits without causing shame or harm. Drawing from his new book, Your Child Is Not Their Weight: Parenting in a Size-Obsessed World, Dr. Skelton explains how well-meaning parents can unintentionally heighten body image struggles, disordered eating, and family tension when they focus too much on weight.

Dr. Skelton introduces the idea of “threading the needle”—supporting a teen’s health without feeding the cultural obsession with body size. He encourages parents to move away from comments, pressure, and restriction, and instead create a home environment built on love and structure. That means modeling healthy habits, setting consistent routines around meals and snacks, limiting food-related commentary, and avoiding moral labels like “good” and “bad” foods.

Colleen and Dr. Skelton also explore the difference between healthy eating, disordered eating, and eating disorders, the emotional impact of weight talk in families, when parents should be concerned, and how to help teens develop a healthier relationship with food and their bodies. This episode offers practical, compassionate guidance for moms who want to protect both their child’s physical health and emotional well-being.

Three key takeaways from this episode:

1. Talking about weight can backfire.
Even loving comments like “Do you really need another cookie?” may be heard by teens as criticism or shame. Dr. Skelton encourages parents to focus less on weight and more on creating healthy family routines.

2. Replace pressure and restriction with love and structure.
Rather than policing food, parents can help by planning meals, setting snack and dinner routines, eating together when possible, and modeling a balanced relationship with food and movement.

3. Your teen’s worth is never defined by their body.
Helping teens build body confidence starts with what parents model at home—avoiding negative body talk, not commenting on appearance, and reinforcing that health, character, and identity matter far more than weight.

Learn More at:

https://school.wakehealth.edu/faculty/s/joseph-skelton

https://www.wakehealth.edu/specialty/b/brenner-fit

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