I have recently read a book call Preventing Childhood Eating Disorders. The premise is that any kind of food restricting in childhood puts the child out of touch with the sensations of hunger and satiety, creates anxieties over not having enough to eat and missing out on desirable food items, and tells the child not too subtly "you are fat," which is bad for self-esteem--thereby setting them up for eating disorders. They substantiate this claim by citing studies that have shown that children who are food restricted get fatter ultimately. The book advocates an approach that is pretty outrageous at first glance and starts with a 'legalizing phase'--allowing the kid to choose a few food items, whatever they want, and making these freely accessible to the child so that they can feed themselves whenever they feel hungry. Of course at first they will go overboard having been restricted and may gain weight. But the claim is that eventually the anxiety-driven eating will be replaced by appropriate hunger-driven eating, as the anxieties go away and the child becomes more in touch with the sensations of hunger and fullness. The authors also claim that kids will ultimately eat what their parents do, so that even if at first they are into chips and ice cream exclusively, as time passes they will eat what they see their parents eating. The book also stresses the importance of (and acknowledges the occasional difficulty in) accepting your child however they are. (Can be easier said than done--my husband and I are slim and have an overweight daughter--I love her very much but admittedly wish she were thinner. So I have work of my own to do...) I'm wondering if there are any comments, and I would love to hear from anyone with an overweight child who has any previous experience with this approach.