What I've been trying to do with awareness.... If families were more aware of what goes on.... A lot of the time, and it certainly happened to us as well, in the beginning, it's such a secretive disease. We didn't keep it a secret, but we did not want Amy to be labelled. I didn't want anybody to look at her any differently as being, “Oh Amy, she has an eating disorder.” If people were more aware of it, and the families were more aware of it....
As well, one of the things I would also say to moms especially is to never say in front of their children, “I need to lose five kilos because I'm going to a wedding and I need to get into a special outfit.”
I never brought the word “diet” into our home. Never. It was never something that she ever heard from me. We're not an overweight family to begin with, so it was never something I ever spoke about. Parents' own attitude and their own acceptance of themselves probably has a role to play with their children. If children see how their parents are looking at themselves constantly in the mirror or saying , “I shouldn't be eating this”, it's going to have an effect on their children.
Other specific things—