Rise of eating disorders in younger children and boys as well as teens; 14 eating disorders signs and advice for a dangerous trend every parent must know “An eating disorder? Impossible! She’s too young!” “Not my daughter!” “Boys can’t have eating disorders! That has to be the wrong diagnosis!” Disbelief is usually our first response [...]

How to counter “Too Much, Too Soon, Too Sleazy” ads aimed at our daughters and raise healthier girls from the inside out Thongs undies for toddlers. Push-up bras for eight-year olds. Sneakers to “tone” legs for preschoolers.  Marketers keep pushing that “too sexy, too soon” envelope on our young daughters, and we are seeing impact [...]

Parenting alert: Websites tailored to young girls that encourage negative self-image, eating disorders and cold-blooded cruelty Research is showing a clear and troubling trend in the mental health of our daughters. Eating disorders, stress, depression, smoking, binge drinking, a peer creulty are steadily rising. Though the internet is certainly not the prime cause, it can [...]

Parenting advice to raise strong, secure girls from the inside out and counter those racy, raunchy “what you have to look like” type images that rob self-esteem These days it’s almost impossible to not read the diet of some pencil-slim celeb. Photos of them all to often leaving some nightclub (drink in hand) wearing some [...]

REALITY CHECK TIME: Bullying, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, stress, early puberty onset, plastic surgery and Botox are all on increase and in younger kids. Here is my pick of the top troubling child and teen trends, the research that shows why we better keep a closer eye on our kids, and what parents, educators and child-advocators [...]

Puberty Onset Four Years Earlier American Academy of Pediatrics: Over a decade ago, Marcia Herman-Giddes, a pediatrician and now professor at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, noticed many young girls in grades one to five were showing public hair and breast development,” In her words, “It seemed like there were too many, [...]

Do you know what K-2, Four Loko, Spice, Blaze, Red X Dawn, Blackout in can, and Toxing are? If not, it’s time to wise up and talk to your teens.  Here are three dangerous teen trends every parent needs to know. K-2 or Synthetic “Fake” Marijuana Teens smoke it as the new way to get [...]

Parenting advice to raise girls from inside out and stop the outside wrinkle-free, large-breasted, pencil thin craze. Enough! Ask teen girls what is on their birthday wish list these days, and you may get a surprise answer: Botox! Yep, that appointed “youth wonder treatment” by the 40 something set (who rave how Botox temporarily reduces those [...]

Parenting advice to help you identify the early signs of an eating disorder in children and what to do is you suspect your daughter (or son) has one “An eating disorder? Impossible!” “Not my daughter!” Disbelief is usually our first response when we read the headlines about anorexia, bulimia and binging. But the fact is [...]

Warning:  I’m ticked–or just darn-right over-the-top disgusted–about two recent events in the fashion world. First up there was top fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld’s attack on the women’s magazine, Brigitte decision to start using “normal-size women” for models instead of the pencil-thin variety. Such a concept, eh? Well, here was Lagerfeld’s comment: “These are fat mummies [...]