How Do I Know if My Child Has Eating Disorder or Body Image Issues? [Podcast Transcript]

Title: How Do I Know if My Child Has Eating Disorder or Body Image Issues?

Podcast Date: March 28, 2025

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Description

Host Heather Creekmore sits down with pastor's wife, author, and counselor Kristen Hatton to discuss what to do if your child has (or you suspect they have) an eating disorder or body image issues. Kristen shares the story of her daughter who had a derogatory comment directed at her in 8th grade and then began to restrict food until it became the eating disorder, anorexia. After going through treatment, Kristen's daughter shifted from restriction to a restrict and purge cycle (bulimia) and Kristen, again, had to intervene to help her daughter restore a healthy relationship with food and her body. 

Heather and Kristen have a bit of friendly debate over whether or not encouraging a child to have healthy habits is effective for those with brains that are geared towards restriction or perfection. They also talk about how important it is to help our children be healthy in every area--not just physically, but spiritually and mentally too. Kristen shares what she learned, in hindsight, to look for if your child may be exhibiting signs of an eating disorder or body image issues. She also talks about how to know when you may need to bring in outside help.

Learn more about Kristen Hatton and her books here: https://www.kristenhatton.com

Learn more about Compared to Who? and how to start healing your body image and food issues: https://www.improvebodyimage.com

Check out the Compared to Who? Etsy shop -with hats, tanks, and tees to remind you to stop comparing and start living. Check it out here: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/shop

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Kristen Hatton [00:00:00]:

Kristen Hatton, welcome to the Compare To Show again.

Kristen Hatton [00:00:03]:

Thank you. It's good to be back with you.

Kristen Hatton [00:00:06]:

Yeah. I'm excited for our conversation today because we're gonna talk about how to help your kids with body image and food issues, and you've walked this. I have. Walked through this with your daughter, Rebecca, and I would just love for you to share share your story. What did that look like? What was Rebecca's journey? What was your journey through that? Can we start there?

Kristen Hatton [00:00:31]:

Yeah. Let's do it. And it's this is so hard. So for any of you listening that are in this journey, I I just I see you. It's really hard. And there were times that I felt very isolated and alone. But I'll kind of back up. Rebecca was in middle school when she first started comparing herself to her friends.

Kristen Hatton [00:00:51]:

And at that point, I had no idea. No idea. And everybody, of course, goes through puberty at different rates, and everybody has different body types. And so I didn't know that she was comparing her changing body and curves to her taller, sick, thin friends who had not yet developed. And I'll say this too. This was even before Instagram because she was in eighth grade when Instagram started, and so that did play a factor as things escalated when she got into high school. But at this point, like, this was starting just with in real life friends with each other at each other's homes. It wasn't, you know, even looking at social media.

Kristen Hatton [00:01:30]:

I can see now how, like, that just intensifies the comparison. But at one point, she and and I did not know this for years later, but, I I know now that at one point, she was with a group of friends and they were getting dressed for a middle school dance. And she commented to one of her friends that she was so pretty, she looked like a model, and this friend said to her, they have plus size models too. Well, in no way would you have looked at my daughter who was not overweight at all and thought plus size model. But in her eyes, because of that comment and how thin this friend was, like, she then like, that just took hold, and she believed that lie and that that's how she looked and how others viewed her. And so, I mean, she's maybe 13 at this time. And so, I mean, it was not and probably three or four years later that I knew that specific lie. And so it just began to take root and so significantly contributed to a full out eating disorder a couple years later.

Kristen Hatton [00:02:32]:

And so that journey even was a little off and on. When she was a freshman in high school, she wanted to lose weight. And at that point, like, I thought, okay. We can do this in a healthy way. Mhmm. And all of a sudden, it just spiraled out of control where I didn't even realize how restrictive she had become and how very little she was eating. And, of course, then she was getting lots of compliments about how great she looked. And that was one of those things that as a mom, I really beat myself up over that how did I miss this? Like, how did I not step in and intervene and and see that, like, she's not eating? Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:12]:

So I've had to deal with that from in my own journey, but, she did she had some friends that then, confronted her and that, you know, she was upset by it, but I was so grateful that she had these friends that were brave enough to say something. So we went to a dietitian.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:31]:

And wait. Kristen, like, how old was she at this point?

Kristen Hatton [00:03:34]:

She, at this point, is probably 14 or 15.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:37]:

Okay. She's still really young. Okay.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:39]:

Still young. Like a freshman in high school.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:41]:

Okay. Okay.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:42]:

So she we went to a dietitian, and she learned about what's happening in inside our bodies

Kristen Hatton [00:03:49]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:03:49]:

When we are depriving ourselves of food. And that was really scary to her because she realized, like, my organs can shut down. But what I real what that ended up doing is it gave her permission to eat again, but then she went as so often this happens with eating disorders. We deprive ourselves and restrict, and then all of a sudden we go to the extreme other side. And so then she starts binging, which led to purging, and that then I didn't know. I thought, oh, good. We got this taken care of. That was great.

Kristen Hatton [00:04:19]:

She heard from the dietician that this is what's happening, and now she's healthy again. Like, her weight was restored. And so I thought, you know, we're out of the woods. And it wasn't then until the beginning of her junior year that she confided in me that she had been purging. And that's when then we really, in earnest, were doing counseling and seeing a dietitian weekly and, you know, for the rest of high school. And then she was okay mostly, but it popped back up in college. So it's been it's been a long, long journey. I can say she's 26 now, and she would say herself that for the first time recently, she really feels just secure that she knows her worth in the Lord.

Kristen Hatton [00:05:03]:

And she was a believer this whole time.

Kristen Hatton [00:05:05]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:05:06]:

But as we all know, as believers, that we can know the truth and yet we still, you know, buy into these lies about who we are. Yeah. So it's been a it's been just a long up and down journey.

Kristen Hatton [00:05:19]:

Yeah. Wow. Thanks for sharing that. Wow. So how did you respond? I mean, okay. When you first found out that she wasn't eating, like Yes. What I mean, were you like, did you have any idea how to respond?

Kristen Hatton [00:05:37]:

No. I really didn't. I I mean, I was so scared myself when I really realized. And like I said, I felt a lot of guilt that I had not caught this myself. I realized too that just even my own, just some disordered eating maybe if you wanna call it that. But just as so often we do as females, oh, I need to lose some weight or, oh, I look fat. Some of those things. Like, I have learned so much myself about not moralizing food.

Kristen Hatton [00:06:07]:

Let's not call food good or bad. Mhmm. Let's, you know I mean, like, I mean, just lots of things related to, like, my own, like, what not commenting on people's bodies, being careful about not commenting on our own bodies. Right. And how we I mean, they pick up on things from the time they're little. In fact, research shows, you probably know this, that even as young as three now, that children start to pick up on just body differences. Yeah. And so we kind of maybe think that when our kids are young that they're not paying attention or they're not listening, but but they are hearing and seeing how we treat our own bodies.

Kristen Hatton [00:06:48]:

Yeah. So there's there's things like that that I wish that I could unwind and, like, have done differently

Kristen Hatton [00:06:54]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:06:54]:

Throughout her growing up years. But as we talked about in the previous episode, like, we have to give forgiveness and grace to ourselves. I mean, I had to confess some of that to her. Yeah. And I don't think I mean, I can't take the blame, but there are there were things that I I learned and that, God is growing me

Kristen Hatton [00:07:12]:

1. Yeah. Yeah. You were both on a journey. We were both on a journey. Yeah. Okay. So hindsight being twenty twenty or better.

Kristen Hatton [00:07:23]:

Yeah. What do you wish you had seen now? Like, were were there things you maybe could have seen that in retrospect you're like, oh, I did notice that, but I thought it was this. Like and anything like that?

Kristen Hatton [00:07:36]:

Yeah. I mean, like, the amount of food that she had limited herself to, I should have been and I would be now much more in tune to what she was not eating and what she was eating.

Kristen Hatton [00:07:49]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:07:50]:

And making sure that she was having a more, full balance of food. Mhmm. I think it's tricky because as any of you listening that have high school kids or just kid just kids in general, they're busy in activities. You're kinda coming and going, and and we were as good as we could be about all sitting down for a family dinner together, but there were times that, you know, oh, she said she wasn't very hungry or she would she's gonna have a salad instead. And and so just those kind of things happen and in the moment, you're not really thinking that it's problematic. But now, like, a a warning flag would have gone up in my head. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristen Hatton [00:08:28]:

And I know too, you know, just I mean, she wasn't verbalizing initially that self criticism and comparison. So I I had no idea about some of that. But there was some withdrawal from friends, and she's she was super social. And so even that now thinking about it. And again, that ties back to intentional connecting and and active listening. There was maybe some things that I was just busy in my own world doing my own things and maybe missing some signs. And so, I mean, that's where I want moms to hear, like, please be gentle to yourself because we are not gonna catch it all. Right.

Kristen Hatton [00:09:07]:

Right.

Kristen Hatton [00:09:08]:

Yeah. So there's a mom out there listening. I know there is. Whose daughter has come to her and said, I wanna lose weight. Or, I mean, the other side of that too is maybe the mom sees the daughter and says she should lose weight. So I think she needs to lose weight. Her life will be easier if she would lose weight. Well, how would you advise that, mom?

Kristen Hatton [00:09:38]:

Yeah. That that's hard. My first question is and you kind of said this, two different scenarios. But is she, daughter, thinking she has a weight problem, or is that you?

Kristen Hatton [00:09:48]:

Because So well, yeah. Let let's let's approach it first from daughter thinks that Okay. She has the problem.

Kristen Hatton [00:09:54]:

Sure. Yep. Okay. So I would a a better approach or the approach that I would take is healthy habits so that our body can optimally function.

Kristen Hatton [00:10:04]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:10:05]:

And so that means eating foods that fuel us, drinking lots of water, getting good sleep and movement. And so not focusing on, like, a diet, but, like, how can we take care of the bodies that God has given us? Like, how so that we can function well. And so even though I talked about not labeling foods good or bad, certainly, there are foods that give us more energy or make us more sluggish. Mhmm. So just encouraging those healthy habits because those are lifelong things that we wanna have healthy habits. Yeah. So that would be my direction now. Yeah.

Kristen Hatton [00:10:42]:

Like, if I could replay, you know, my daughter being in that situation of wanting to lose weight, we would focus just on these healthy habits.

Kristen Hatton [00:10:52]:

Can I can I, push a little bit on that one?

Kristen Hatton [00:10:55]:

Sure. Please do.

Kristen Hatton [00:10:57]:

But if you have a daughter that is wired like your daughter was and wired like I am, I hear healthy habits and I think I can do better. I mean, to me, that sends me to orthorexia. Right? Because if if you want me to be healthy habits, I can be healthy habits for you. I can make sure I exercise obsessively. I can make sure I don't eat anything that's not clean. It doesn't fuel my body. Like, I just wonder, like, I, I honestly wonder if they're like, like both things are true. Right, Kristen? Like, as as we talked about kind of in the last episode, like we do have this responsibility as parents to like help our kids with physical health.

Kristen Hatton [00:11:48]:

Mhmm. And yet the culture out there is so loud around physical health. Like I, you know, I have four kids and it's my boys that will watch YouTube videos on how to be healthier. It's my boys that will argue with me about food and what they should eat and what they shouldn't eat. I mean, and and so I, I just, I just wonder how we navigate those things wisely. Right? I I just I don't I don't know. Like, I don't I don't wanna be argumentative, but I just wonder if healthy habits covers it well enough. Right? Or that's dangerous for some.

Kristen Hatton [00:12:35]:

That is such a good point. Well taken for sure. I think that's important because we do have that tendency in our culture. Like, we can feel a lot of pride because we are eating clean or, you know, we're over exercising, doing all healthy habits like you're you're saying. So, yeah, we do need to maybe sparse that out a little bit more. I I I believe it goes back to idolatry as well. Like, what are we trusting in functionally? Right. Am I looking to my clean eating is my righteousness? And so those are conversations we've been having with our kids since the time they were young is, like, what's what's ruling our hearts.

Kristen Hatton [00:13:12]:

So I think they go hand in hand. Yeah. Helping them learn to understand, like, what is their motive and what what are they basing their perfection in or their righteousness in? Is it their own, you know, ability to eat clean or to whatever it is, run a marathon? Right. Or am I trusting in a savior?

Kristen Hatton [00:13:37]:

Yeah.

Kristen Hatton [00:13:38]:

But I also the point, I think this is so important, is boys. Because increasingly, boys are struggling with body image, but we don't always see it. For them, it was kinda like your sons and my sons were this way too. They're using protein powder and they're wanting to have, you know, muscle. And they can feel all these insecurities too. Like, if they take their shirt off and they don't look as muscular as the next guy or one of my sons is fairly short, especially compared to his brother who is significantly taller. And so just his own insecurity of course, we can't do anything about our height, but there still is that body image Right. That boys too.

Kristen Hatton [00:14:17]:

And so we can't just say or not not not pay attention to our boys too because they're also having these internal thoughts.

Kristen Hatton [00:14:25]:

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I've I've I've had teenage boys reach out to me over the years. Kristen, it's the funniest thing. There might be teenage boys listening now because I I and I feel bad because I'm like, you're right. There's not enough resources for you. Like, they don't know where to go. And, because they're kind of missed in these conversations and, you know, probably the the point you're making before.

Kristen Hatton [00:14:50]:

Right? We might be more tuned into watching our daughters around this, but might miss it with our sons. So I think that's a good reminder. But I think going back to, you know, the conversation before about, like, healthy habits, I think I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of spiritually healthy habits Mhmm. Are perhaps bigger, more frequent conversations that we need to have. Yeah. And that's probably what's missing. Like, honestly. Right? Because that's, I mean, that's a more awkward thing to talk about.

Kristen Hatton [00:15:21]:

Like, it's easy to talk about food, you know, especially like I'm just seeing you this summer, like, you know, my kids are around three meals a day. Right. There's lots of opportunities to talk about food and basics and, you know, why don't you go run around the block instead of sitting in front of the television? Like those kinds of things. I feel like I'm was constantly parenting on. Right. Especially when they were younger and I homeschooled. And so my kids were home all day long. And so it was kind of, you know, just constant opportunities go above your body, go get some sunshine, you know, like those kind of things.

Kristen Hatton [00:15:52]:

And yet having conversations about like, okay, like, why is that so important to you? Like, what have you made an idol here? Like, those are harder. Like, they were to what you said in the last episode. Right? They require more of that intentional parenting, that tuning into, wait a second here. This kid will never miss a workout. Like, that might be the extreme from, you know, get off the couch and go run around the clock a couple times just to get some, you know, energy out. That's really what it was for my kids. But it might be feel like it's a win, but maybe there's something going on blood surface.

Kristen Hatton [00:16:32]:

We can perform well. We can do the good things, but you're right. What's going on in your heart?

Kristen Hatton [00:16:39]:

Mhmm. How did she respond when she confessed purging to you?

Kristen Hatton [00:16:44]:

Mhmm. You know, it was we were in the car. We'd literally just pulled out of the driveway when she, like, says this. And I just, like, put the brakes on and put it in park. I mean, we're on our street, and I just started crying. I just hugged her.

Kristen Hatton [00:17:01]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:17:01]:

And I just was so overwhelmed. I was so grateful that she was confiding in me, but I was also just so just hurting myself that she this this struggle that I didn't know about, that she had been holding herself. So so many emotions, but just really, really mostly grateful that she had the courage and felt safe that she could tell me.

Kristen Hatton [00:17:26]:

Because it feels like okay. So you you had a little bit of lay counseling experience. It feels like I think for your average mom, I could be wrong. But I think that first tendency might be to, like, try to stop it. Yeah. Right? Like, okay. We need to stop doing that. You know? Like, well, okay.

Kristen Hatton [00:17:46]:

After you eat, like, let's sit together on the couch or, you know, like, let's try to find some way to stop it. Mhmm. Or even with anorexia. I mean, I know that that one conversation that has to be had a lot with families is you can't respond with, oh, you just need to eat. Like, you know, just make them more food. Just sit there and watch them until they finish their plate. Like, those kind of physical, like, interventions.

Kristen Hatton [00:18:14]:

Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:18:14]:

Mhmm. Don't touch it, do they?

Kristen Hatton [00:18:17]:

No. And not that there's not a place for interventions, but, again, if we're not getting to the heart level because an eating disorder is never about the food. It's what's what's deeper. And so we have to go there, but you're right. We so I mean, these kind of things are scary for us as parents in in any kind of issue. Like, it's just we kinda wanna just give law. Like, let's just you know, to stop that, or I'm gonna be your accountability partner. And, again, I'm not saying that that's necessarily wrong Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:18:45]:

But that's not the the cure all. Right. So, ultimately, we have to go back to what what are you trusting in? Who you know, what's filling that hole in your soul? What are you looking to? Why do you have to be perfect, or why are you seeking your worth in something else? And and, I mean, that's hard. That is so hard. So I have so much compassion because I know this is so much easier for me to just say now than but knowing, like, this is a really long drawn out journey.

Kristen Hatton [00:19:17]:

Yeah. Well, I'm thinking too. I mean, one of the, you know, one of the data points behind eating disorders, right, is an inability to feel feelings. Mhmm. Right? We haven't learned how to feel our feelings. And I feel like that's a journey I'm still on. Like, it's still easier for me not to feel my feelings. Like Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:19:38]:

Feelings. And I don't know that I really need them. I can just keep going. I can just do things. And as they pop up, you know? And and so thinking about as parents, I mean, just, you know, there's so much data out there that shows us, but, like, we've gotta be willing to enter in. Like, what, like, what is it that you're really feeling? Like, is this loneliness that you hope, you know, like, that you'll be more accepted if your body looks different, you know, that you won't be rejected, that you have more friends? Like, is loneliness what you're feeling? Like, what, like, what's, you know, what is the feeling? Are, you know, are you depressed about something? You're sad. You know, are you are you angry? Like, you know, what, like, what's what's underneath it all? And I think that's hard for a lot of us to do because we never were taught to do that for ourselves.

Kristen Hatton [00:20:29]:

Exactly. That's what I was just thinking. We had to go first because I I think it takes being vulnerable because our kids are not going to necessarily just open up and say, and especially if they don't know how to feel their feelings.

Kristen Hatton [00:20:42]:

Right.

Kristen Hatton [00:20:42]:

But what are we modeling to them? Are we able to communicate, like, that when we feel lonely or sad? And so I think a great thing that families can do around the dinner table is use a feelings wheel. And everybody identify, like, you know, maybe once a week. Like, what was what feelings did you have this week? Your you know, this or that. And and talk about it. One, that's intentional. We get to know each other on a deeper level because so often we're just talking about surfacey things. But we're helping equip them to be in touch with their feelings. I mean, all the time in the counseling room, I ask clients how they're feeling, adult women, and they they can't say, but then I hand them a feelings wheel, and they see all these words, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, well, maybe this and this and this.

Kristen Hatton [00:21:27]:

Well, now that opens up a whole conversation. So we can help our kids in that way for sure. But I I I really believe that we have to be safe. We have to get in the boat with them, so that they feel like that they can share with us because they know that we are also vulnerable

Kristen Hatton [00:21:46]:

Yeah.

Kristen Hatton [00:21:46]:

And see ourselves as sinners in need of Jesus.

Kristen Hatton [00:21:49]:

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Okay. So as we kinda wrap up, someone listening today noticed last night that their daughter didn't eat very much for dinner. What what do you do? Where do you start? You don't enroll her in treatment the next day. But but what like, what is that process like? Like, how do I know when it's a real problem? And is there, like, a a litmus test for okay. I need to seek get some outside help here.

Kristen Hatton [00:22:20]:

Like, what are your thoughts there?

Kristen Hatton [00:22:22]:

Yeah. I mean, first, if I noticed that last night, I hadn't noticed it. It was first time, let's say, that I noticed that. I would just, you know, put that away in my brain. And so now I'm gonna notice I'm going to be noticing. So I'm not gonna say something probably initially because there are times that we're just not hungry or we're stressed or whatever. We're not eating as much. But if I start to see, you know, okay.

Kristen Hatton [00:22:46]:

Interesting. She's putting barely anything on her plate and this is happening regular. Like, then I would start to ask. And I also want parents to feel equipped. Like, we are the number one shaping influence in our children's lives, and I think so quickly. And of course, I'm a therapist saying this, but when but I want and this is really one of the reasons I started my Rich Dad to Parenting Instagram account, is because I wanna encourage and equip parents to be the parent. And so sometimes, yes, we do need to call a counselor. Like, things have gotten way beyond our pay grade and more serious.

Kristen Hatton [00:23:19]:

But we can step in first and have these conversations. And so just like we we were just saying, like, tell me what's going on. Are you what are you feeling? Let's like, I've noticed you haven't been eating as much lately. And and and ourselves working through those things, the one huge benefit of that is, like, we are connecting with our kid on a deeper level that forms a a lifelong foundation. And so if we can be that for our kid, we can be that safe person. That's that's awesome. That's what we want. So I would encourage parents to to enter in themselves, and not just feel like we gotta call in the professional just immediately.

Kristen Hatton [00:24:00]:

But then how do I know when I need the professional? Like, is there Yeah. I don't know, gut feeling, or is there, like, weight loss amounts? Or Yeah. Is it immediately with purging? Like, what like, what are your thoughts there?

Kristen Hatton [00:24:12]:

Yeah. I mean, I might cons if my child is purging, I think I'd probably consult with a counselor and, you know, try to determine, like, okay. Mhmm. This has been going on. Yes. But I I need to have an appointment set up. So I I don't know that there's, like, you know, these markers that we absolutely know. But if if we are starting to see, like, okay.

Kristen Hatton [00:24:33]:

This has been going on for a while, and she's withdrawn, and there's been all these changes in her eating and this and I'm saying she, but she or he. Obsessive focus on body or or self criticism. Like, it may be that, like, okay. I need to I do need to call in some troops. And and with an eating disorder, especially, I mean, a dietitian, a counselor, a pediatrician, I mean, we need the the full army. Mhmm. So, certainly, if it feels like this has been going on, like, with my daughter, I mean, all of a sudden that when she confessed to me, like, it had been going on for a while. So Mhmm.

Kristen Hatton [00:25:09]:

It I didn't have time to now just myself try to to do something. We needed professional help.

Kristen Hatton [00:25:16]:

Yeah. And just, I guess, last question. I don't know. This is probably, like, a gimme, but preventative. I don't that's just a silly word. There's no such thing as preventative necessarily. Right? But I'm just thinking, like, for a mom out there, maybe daughter's getting ready to enter the teenage years. No.

Kristen Hatton [00:25:38]:

Like, anything you can think of to help set her up for a different path, like maybe staying off social media or, like I mean, any thoughts there?

Kristen Hatton [00:25:53]:

Yeah. I I think entering into it, like, not making it a taboo topic. I mean, it's it's in the same way that we need to be talking about pornography with our kids. I think I would just address it. Like Yeah. That's good. You're going into middle school or high school or whatever it is. And and these are common struggles.

Kristen Hatton [00:26:12]:

Tell me, like, if you felt this before. Or when you look at social media, like, what what goes through your mind? Like, just addressing that head on, entering in, like, insane. I wanna keep these dialogues going because I know this is a very real struggle for girls and women of all ages. And I would say too, like, I find myself struggling when I'm with a group of women and I you know, they are so beautifully dressed, and, like, I can start feeling down on myself. And I think that's so important for our girls to know our own struggles because, again, that makes us safe that they actually can come talk to us.

Kristen Hatton [00:26:49]:

Yeah. I'm so glad you said that. I was gonna jump in with that too. Like, you know, I think we're almost afraid to tell our daughters about our struggles because maybe we fear that they'll repeat it if they hear it, like power of suggestion or something like that. Or maybe we're just like, you know, and we think that compromises our role as parents, like, you know, leading the child or something. But I think you're spot on. Like, being able to say, mom, mom struggles with this too. Like, this is real.

Kristen Hatton [00:27:17]:

You're not gonna grow out of this. Like like, we we've gotta look at the why. Like, what's really going on in our hearts when we get stuck here? And and just, yeah, being able to relate and say, yep. Me too. I think that does keep the line of communications open. So I think that's really good. Kristen, any final thoughts as we close?

Kristen Hatton [00:27:40]:

Oh, you know, one thing that I talk to clients about at times is just encourage her to think about all that her body does that is good. Mhmm. To just remember, like, we can move. We can breathe. We can laugh. We can enjoy our friends. I can experience the world through my senses.

Kristen Hatton [00:28:00]:

Yeah.

Kristen Hatton [00:28:00]:

And then also just encouraging her and for ourselves. Find scripture that speak to the body. You know? So my body is worthy and valuable to God. Write these down and then pray. Pray that God would enable us to believe that. And then for ourselves to trust God with our children's stories. Because as we talked about in the last episode, like, we want to control and fix and prevent. We don't want our children to struggle.

Kristen Hatton [00:28:29]:

But to know that God is writing a good story and that story is also for you. And so in that, that's where I grew so much in my dependence and need of the Lord because I knew I could not fix my daughter. And so I had to ride that journey with her.

Kristen Hatton [00:28:47]:

Yeah. That's good. That's good. Well, Kristen Hatton, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Thank you, Heather. And you connect with people at redemptive parenting on Instagram and your website. I will put the links and you have a number of books. We you've got a book on parenting, but we mentioned you mentioned the last episode.

Kristen Hatton [00:29:05]:

You mentioned again the Bible study you have for teenagers.

Kristen Hatton [00:29:09]:

Yes. So there's three books. Get Your Story Straight is a year long devotional book for girls and boys. There's a Bible study, in the book of Exodus. And then FaceTime, your identity in a selfie world is specifically for girls. Not just dealing with body image, but that's a part of it. That's actually what led me to write it. And so it's helping to be rooted in the truth of God's word and learning to dispute the lies that we tell ourselves.

Kristen Hatton [00:29:37]:

That's good. That's good. Well, I'll have the link to all of that in the show notes. Kristen, thanks for being on the podcast today.

Kristen Hatton [00:29:42]:

Thank you. This was great.

Kristen Hatton [00:29:43]:

And thank you for watching or listening. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye bye.