當你的孩子因肥胖而感到羞恥時,你該做些什麼

As a kid who started struggling with his weight around age seven, Nancy Leslie's* youngest son, Cameron, got picked on by classmates all the time. "He even quit sailing lessons because he got teased about his weight," says the North Bay, Ont., mother of three. And when Cameron was bullied about his weight at school, teachers and school authorities wouldn't step in. "Their attitude was, well, he's a fat kid, he's going to get picked on. Kids are cruel," says Leslie.

南希·萊斯利最小的兒子卡梅隆（7歲）因爲自己的體重而苦惱不堪，他的同學也一直找他的茬。"因爲同學嘲笑他的體重，所以他連航海課都不上了，"這位三個孩子的母親說道，他們家在加拿大安大略省的北部灣。當卡梅隆在學校因爲體重而被霸凌時，學校的老師和當局人員卻沒有介入。"他們的態度就是，誰讓他是個胖小孩呢，他肯定會被找茬的。孩子們都很殘忍，"萊斯利說道。

A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics is aimed at raising awareness about the kind of stigma kids like Cameron face every day. According to lead author Stephen Pont, an Austin, Texas, pediatrician and the founding director of the AAP section on obesity, the guilt, and shame kids feel when they're singled out due to their size is harmful in multiple ways.

美國兒科學會發布的一項新政策聲明旨在提高人們對卡梅隆這類兒童每天所遭受的羞辱的認識。首席作者、德克薩斯州奧斯汀的兒科醫生、美國兒科學會肥胖部門的創始主任史蒂芬·邦（Stephen Pont）表示，孩子們由於肥胖而被單挑出來，那種羞辱、羞恥感會給他們帶來很多傷害。

The emotional and psychological fall-out is even worse: Pont and his co-authors cite research showing that weight-based teasing and bullying is linked with an increased risk of problems ranging from anxiety to substance abuse. It's also associated with a two-fold jump in the odds of thinking about or attempting suicide.

情感和心理傷害更爲糟糕：邦和合著作者引用研究表明，基於體重的嘲笑和霸凌會導致一些風險的增加，比如焦慮和藥物濫用。同時，導致孩子思考或試圖自殺的機率增加兩倍。

And it's not just other children who are guilty of shaming kids who struggle with their weight, intentionally or otherwise. "Unfortunately, healthcare providers are some of the worst exhibitors of weight stigma," notes Pont. According to the AAP paper, health professionals "often view patients with obesity as being lazy, lacking self-control, and being less intelligent."

不僅那些有意無意因爲體重而嘲笑別人的孩子應該感到愧疚。邦指出："不幸的是，醫療提供者也常常嘲笑他人的體重。"美國兒科學會發布的文章表示，健康專業人士"通常認爲肥胖患者都是因爲懶、缺乏自控力才肥胖的，而且也不聰明。"

Even teachers and parents contribute to the shaming. For example, according to data from one large-scale US study of preschoolers and kindergarteners, teachers rate the academic performance of students with obesity worse than their test performance suggests. Another study found that 37 percent of adolescents attending weight-loss camp had been teased or bullied about their weight by a parent, while a survey of women with obesity found that 53 percent had experienced weight stigma from their mothers, and 44 percent had from their fathers.

更有甚者，老師和家長也會造成兒童的羞恥感。比如，據美國對學齡前兒童和幼兒園兒童開展的大型研究的數據表示，老師給肥胖兒童的打分成績要低於他們的實際考試成績。另一項研究發現，37%參加減肥訓練營的青少年都被父母嘲笑或霸凌過，而一項有關女性的研究發現：53%的人被母親羞辱過，44%的人被父親嘲笑過。