According to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a two-fold simple approach could be used to prevent  teenage obesity and eating disorders.

The report “Preventing Obesity and Eating Disorders in Adolescents,” published in the journal Pediatrics, advises that parents and health experts should veer from focusing on a teen’s overweight body and need for diet. Instead, they should promote a healthy lifestyle balance and that comes with healthy eating.

Many eating disorder programs have noted a marked increase in the number of teens who previously were obese or overweight but who now show early signs of developing eating disorders. In their attempt to lose weight the adolescents may have come to rely on unhealthy and unsustainable methods such as skipping meals or using diet pills or laxatives.

Some who reach normal weights for age and body size also may develop medical and psychologic characteristics similar to teens with classic anorexia nervosa. They may present to the pediatrician with signs of medical instability that can include severe bradycardia (slow heart rate) or orthostasis (postural hypotension).

Three recommendations focus on behaviors to avoid: parents and doctors should discourage dieting, skipping of meals, and the use of diet pills. Instead, they should encourage and support the implementation of healthy eating and physically active behaviors that can be maintained on an ongoing basis.

Two recommendations emphasize behaviors to promote: parents should encourage more frequent family meals, and parents should support a positive body image among teenagers that can motivate them toward developing healthy eating and physical activity habits.

see more : https://www.healthychildren.org/english/healthy-living/pages/default.aspx

At Dove, they believe no young person should be held back from reaching their full potential. However, low body confidence and anxieties over appearance keep young people from being their best selves, affecting their health, friendships, and even performance at school.
For more than 10 years, they’ve been helping parents, mentors, teachers, and youth leaders deliver self-esteem education that’s reached more than 20 million young people so far.

Take a look at their resource page and learning materials:

self esteem project

The Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has partnered with educational games specialists Focus Games Ltd to launch an exciting new resource to help children understand and respect the differences in people’s appearance.

Everybody’s Different: The Appearance Game is an educational board game that aims to help young people to discuss and explore issues around appearance and body image.

Many young people are happy with the way they look, but many are not. Factors including the media, and friends and family, can influence how they feel about their own appearance, and how they react to other people, including those who have a visible difference (disfigurement) of any sort. The game aims to help children understand that differences in appearance are normal, and people come in many different shapes, colours, sizes and appearances.

Everybody’s Different: The Appearance Game is a team board game for up to eight players, aged nine and above. Two teams compete against each other, asking and answering questions, and completing activities which promote discussion around body image, appearance and differences. Questions and activities explore a variety of key topics including body confidence, visible difference, body talk, appearance related bullying, appearance ideals in the media and putting appearance in perspective. The game is a fun but informative alternative to traditional educational activities, and could be used by schools, groups or clubs, or for health promotion.

For further information visit www.appearancegame.co.uk or @AppearanceGame on Twitter.

Triskelion staff visited primary-, secondary- and vocational schools in Esenler suburb in Istanbul to see how they have worked towards integrating Syrian refugees into schools and everyday life. We were also granted a welcome at the mayor’s office where he was interested in starting cooperation in the education sector for his team of schools. We emphasised our historical connections back to viking times around 900 when a norseman/viking called Halvdan wrote his name on the balcony of the second floor in Hagia Sofia church probably serving as a guard to the royalty.

Dr Martin Persson was invited to speak to the European Parliament on 27 February 2018. The breakfast event, hosted by MEP Sean Kelly and attended by a diverse audience of other MEPs and policy makers, was an opportunity to get clefts and craniofacial anomalies on the Parliament’s agenda. The aim is to start pressing the European Commission for specific resources for cleft and craniofacial care in order to reduce the huge inequalities across Europe, enabling equal access to good quality lifelong cleft care. Also with a speech at the event, ECO Executive Director Gareth Davies, stated ‘access to good cleft care is a basic human right and everyone born with a cleft and craniofacial anomaly should have the opportunity of realizing their full potential. There are a million people in Europe with clefts – equivalent to a city the size of Brussels. This in not a marginal concern and needs addressing urgently”