YOU DON'T HAVE TO PASS YOUR BODY IMAGE ISSUES ON TO YOUR KIDS

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PUBLICATION DATE:

May 30, 2024

YOU DON'T HAVE TO PASS YOUR BODY IMAGE ISSUES ON TO YOUR KIDS

Modern Mommy Doc

CATEGORY: Body Love

About Our Guest:

Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a practicing board-certified pediatrician, author, speaker, and full-time working mom. Dr. Whitney is a Stanford University-trained private practice physician whose expertise spans the public health, direct patient care, and media worlds. She holds a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from The University of California, Berkeley, and a Journalism degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also CEO and Founder of Modern Mommy Doc.

Dr. Whitney advocates for the success of career-driven caregivers in all facets of their lives, guiding them toward increased focus, happiness, and effectiveness despite the systemic challenges and inherent biases that threaten to undermine them. She speaks nationally about her Centered Life Blueprint, which teaches working caregivers how to pay attention to what matters most amid pressure, at multibillion-dollar corporations like Adidas and Nike, and at executive-level conferences. She is a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and medical consultant for large-scale organizations, including Good Housekeeping magazine, Gerber, and L’Oreal (CeraVe). Her work has been featured in Forbes, Thrive Global, and TODAY Parenting. She is a regular contributor to Psychology Today.

Dr. Whitney practices medicine in Portland, Oregon, where she and her husband raise their two young daughters.

About the Episode:

Dr. Whitney gets personal on this episode talking about body image, weight, and the world’s standards of health. She talks about why it’s so hard for women to have a positive body image even in the movement of body positivity and how we can help break that cycle for our kids.

Episode Takeaways:

There is such a divide in women’s health when it comes to body image and weight. And, as women, we’ve been steeped in diet culture our entire lives. From watching our parents go through a million diet and exercise programs to the way they spoke to us about our bodies (even when their motivation came from the right place!) it really shaped and formed our relationships with our bodies, food, and exercise. And it’s really difficult as parents, now, to navigate that with our kids, knowing how much it has affected us.

I often struggle with hearing all the voices that have spoken into my life about weight. I hear my parents talk about their own body, I hear all the people who told me I looked so great after I lost weight. As a result of those thoughts, it’s really difficult to make my actions line up with my mindset. I want to be as healthy as I can be for my kids, and I want to be the best role model in the area, but I’m a human being and sometimes I fall short.

There are times when I exercise not just for the joy of movement, but to lose weight. I do eat foods and think, “Will this make me bigger?” “Will this make me smaller?” I do look at my body and think critical thoughts. But I’ve learned there’s a difference between thinking a thought and taking it and passing it onto your kids. I can fight those internal demons and still pass on something better to my kids.

When I have those thoughts, I give myself the most grace and self-compassion. When I think critically, I tell myself WHY I’m being critical–because of the way you’ve been conditioned to think for so long. And then I ask myself what I’m going to do with that thought. I’m going to be mindful, I’ll store it away, and move on. And if I do take an action, like eating for restriction or exercising for a version of “health” that isn’t healthy for me, I can still stop and reverse it. It doesn’t have to be the new normal.

Oftentimes, these things aren’t even noticeable from the outside. It’s just the constant mind chatter going on inside your head. That doesn’t mean you can’t be authority on this for your kids. That doesn’t mean you can’t undo all the damage of diet culture. It means that it’s okay that you’re not perfect. That it’s okay that it’s still a struggle. It’s going to take several generations for our kids to unlearn what we learned and to unsee what’s on the internet with photoshop and filters.

Just because your experience was terrible, doesn’t mean it has to be that way for your kids. But they live in the real world, so we have to take those times to explain to them what’s happening, what stereotypes are, what old ideas are out there about what it means to be “healthy,” and what our families are going to do to set our relationships with food and our bodies.

CLARITY MATTERS: HOW EARLY AUTISM DETECTION CAN CHANGE A CHILD'S LIFELONG TRAJECTORY

By Dr. Whitney • December 17, 2025

About the Episode: In this episode, Dr. Whitney sits down with Dr. Jay Gargus and Dave Justus from NeuroQure to discuss the power of early clarity when it comes to autism detection and why earlier intervention can fundamentally change outcomes for childre n and families. Dr. Gargus explains the science behind early behavioral therapies and why their impact goes far beyond short-term skill-building. Research shows that early, evidence-based interventions can lead to measurable, lifelong improvements in IQ, so cial skills, independence, and educational placement, often determining whether a child can thrive in mainstream education or requires ongoing specialized support. The conversation also tackles a critical and often overlooked issue: access. Dave Justus shares the personal motivation behind NeuroQure’s work and explains why the test is being launched at cost, with installment plans and employer subsidies, while the team works toward insurance coverage. The goal is to prevent families from losing precious years waiting for answers. Together, they emphasize a hopeful message for parents: families don’t need to wait for a future “silver bullet.” We already have therapies that work and getting kids connected to them earlier can change the course of a lifetime. In this episode, we discuss: Why early autism detection leads to lifelong changes—not just short-term gains What a 17-point IQ difference actually means for education, independence, and quality of life How early intervention can shift developmental trajectories as early as 6 months The science and validation behind current autism therapies Why NeuroQure is pricing testing at cost while pursuing insurance coverage How early clarity can reduce long-term strain on families, schools, and healthcare systems This episode is a powerful reminder that timing matters and that early access to answers can make an extraordinary difference for children and the families who love them. About Our Guest: Dr. Jay Gargus, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist and nationally recognized expert in neurodevelopmental disorders, with decades of experience researching the biological underpinnings of autism. His work has focused on translating well-established science into meaningful, real-world interventions that can improve lifelong outcomes for children. Dr. Gargus emphasizes that early, evidence-based therapies are already available—and that connecting families to them sooner can fundamentally change developmental trajectories. Dave Justus is a parent and the founder of NeuroQure, whose work is driven by personal experience navigating delayed autism diagnosis and intervention. Motivated by the belief that early clarity can spare families years of uncertainty, Dave is focused on expanding access to early testing through cost-based pricing and ongoing efforts to secure insurance coverage. His mission is simple but powerful: ensure families don’t have to wait for answers that could change everything. Want to Start Raising Body-Confident Kids Today? 📘 Order the Book Order your copy of My One-of-a-Kind Body 👉 www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books 🎁 Claim Your Free Bonus When you order on our site, you’ll also get access to a FREE video mini-course with five bite-sized lessons for parents. In just 25 minutes, you’ll walk away with: Simple, script-style ways to respond when your kid says, “I hate my thighs” How to talk about health without weight talk What to do when your own inner critic shows up How to interrupt diet culture at home The first step to raising a body-confident kid, even if you didn’t grow up as one 📩 Subscribe to The Modern Mommy Doc Podcast for more episodes on parenting with confidence and clarity. Leave a review using the hashtag #ModernMommyDoc.