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If parents are disappointed by their newborn's appearance, the
child's later development of a healthy body image is hampered, says Aderienne Ressler, M.A., C. S. W., director of professional development at the Renfrew Center, a facility for women with eating disorders in Coconut Creek, Florida.
"If reality doesn't mesh with expectation," she says," the parents may have trouble responding to the
baby's needs."
Ressler adds that the way a baby is touched and cared for sets the stage for body-image distortion.
"Many anorectics have no sense of their bodies because their parents responded to their own need instead of the
child's," she says.
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