Babies come in all shapes and sizes, and for some, that means chubby legs and a big of healthy baby fat. But more and more parents are going to extremes and doing the unthinkable — putting their babies on diets. Several news outlets have recently reported that some parents are restricting their babies’ caloric intake and in one especially disturbing case, starving and feeding laxatives to their baby girl to keep her thin. Of course your baby’s health is of utmost importance, and with childhood obesity doubling in the past 20 years, it’s certainly not a path you want your kid to go down, but this approach is downright disturbing.

What’s even more disturbing about the recent baby diet trend is that, in many cases, it’s less about the child’s health, and more about parents projecting their own weight issues and insecurities onto their kids. Good Morning America asked one mother, Jodi Hasan, about why she has her daughter Maya on a strict diet and she explained that the reason is because she herself has battled weight problems her whole life. “I don’t want her to have any of the problems that I had: the self-consciousness, health issues,” she said. “I want her to have good self-esteem.”

As extreme as it sounds, Hasan’s case pales in comparison to that of Britainny and Sam Labberton who were convicted last year of starving their baby so she wouldn’t become “fat” like her father. The little girl gained just 1 pound in her first two months being alive and what’s even more concerning is that her bottle was found to contain traces of laxatives. Criminal mistreatment charges were brought against both parents.

Via Good Morning America and Healthland Time