Author | Permission to Use Info
Healthful Life MD Abby Bleistein
Too often, kids and adults alike suffer from name-calling, taunting, rude gestures, pranks, and other cruel teasing and bullying because of their weight. The following recording and handout are thanks to Dr. Abby Bleistein, who is a board certified physician in Internal Medicine, pediatrics, and obesity medicine. Abby has a practice specializing in medically managed weight loss for adults and kids. She uses Kidpower to provide support and skills for her patients because they face a much higher risk of being bullied about their size. She includes this knowledge in her presentations on pediatric obesity at educational conferences for pediatricians.
As a Kidpower Board member who has participated in our Skills for Child Protection Advocates Institute, Abby partnered with us to create a handout and plan for what health care providers can say and do to help protect their patients who carry extra weight in their bodies from bullying. Please put your name and email in the form below to download our handout for health care providers and other supporters.
Kidpower Tips and Resources for Health Care Providers: Protecting Overweight Youth from Bullying
In the following audio recording of a telephone meeting with some of our instructors and board members, Abby discusses how she is partnering with Kidpower to educate pediatricians and other professionals about how to use Kidpower skills and resources with their patients.
Although the focus of the handout and discussion was about young people, all of these tools have also been useful for adults. At any age, people who want to lose weight in a healthy way often struggle with image and boundary issues that diminish their sense of self-worth and confidence. Health care providers and other people in positions of authority have the opportunity, even in just a minute or two, to communicate powerful information that can make a big difference.
To learn more about Abby’s excellent resources for helping people make healthy lifestyle choices, visit her website at: http://www.healthfullifemd.com/
Published: March 22, 2017 | Last Updated: March 22, 2017
Irene van der Zande, Kidpower Founder and Executive Director
Kidpower Founder and Executive Irene van der Zande is a master at teaching safety through stories and practices and at inspiring others to do the same. Her child protection and personal safety expertise has been featured by USA Today, CNN, Today Moms, the LA Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Publications include: cartoon-illustrated Kidpower Safety Comics and Kidpower Teaching Books curriculum; Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe; the Relationship Safety Skills Handbook for Teens and Adults; Earliest Teachable Moment: Personal Safety for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers; The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, and the Amazon Best Seller Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels.