Maggie Goes on a Diet, by American author Paul M Kramer, who has a son, will go on sale in Australia on October 16 and is aimed at children aged six and up.

Kramer, who is now based in Hawaii, has self-published a number of children's books with Aloha Publishers.

According to Kramer, his true passion in life has been to write books that deal with issues kids face today.

He has written novels dealing with topics ranging from bullying to wetting the bed. They are written in rhyme and are for parents to read with their children.

Maggie Goes on a Diet tells of the story of a 14-year old who goes on a diet and becomes the school football star.

The synopsis on the publisher's website reads: "Maggie has so much potential that has been hiding under her extra weight."

It's a topical issue with the rise in childhood obesity rates causing alarm among health authorities in most Western countries. But the book's equation of slenderness with success sends the wrong message, say local child psychology experts.

While acknowledging the difficulty in addressing this extremely complex issue, Dr Sloan Madden, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, who also heads the department of psychological medicine and is the co-director of the eating disorder program at Westmead Children's Hospital, disagrees with the method used to communicate the message.

"Children in that age bracket are very black and white and literal in the way they understand things, so they can't look behind the message," he said.

"The blurb from the book basically equates being overweight with being unpopular, unsuccessful and lacking a societal worth, whereas being slim is associated with being successful.

"In the book she goes on to become the school soccer star, she develops self-esteem, essentially by losing weight and that's desirable because of her hard work.''

Dr Madden said that many of the children who are admitted to Westmead with eating disorders want to lose weight because they think it is the simple solution to becoming more popular and successful.

While it is obvious Kramer had good intentions when writing the book, Dr Madden said the growing focus on negative messages about being overweight or obese has seen the rate of eating disorders among children increase.

"At the Children's Hospital in the last 10 years, we now admit three times the number of children," he said.

The Butterfly Foundation CEO Christine Morgan has labelled the book dangerous and irresponsible.

"To say that it's inspiring for a 14-year-old to go on a diet ... this age is when young girls are at their most impressionable, it is also the peak time for them to develop an eating disorder," Ms Morgan said.

"Clinical eating disorders are psychiatric disorders, which have the highest fatality rate. Someone that suffers from anorexia nervosa is 32 times more likely to try and take their own life than their peers," she said.

Ms Morgan said the Butterfly Foundation, which helps support sufferers of eating disorders and negative body image, promotes a positive image of self-worth based on a person's attributes and skills, not based on weight or shape.

"At a societal level it [the novel] is giving all the wrong messages. It is setting up a time bomb within children," Ms Morgan said.

Richard Lowe, from the National Book Network, which is handling sales of the book in the US, told ABC News America "[Kramer is] really passionate about what he's doing. In Hawaii, he goes around to schools and does presentations and he likes working with kids".

Dr Madden said it has become harder to educate children properly when they are bombarded with messages from many different sources.

''Parents need to help their children understand the messages that are being portrayed," he said. "They should not be focusing on exercising to lose weight, but focusing on exercise for health and because it's enjoyable."

Kramer responded to his critics on betweenbabies.com.

''I'm not advocating that that six-year-old go on a diet in any way shape or form, but if that six-year-old sees somebody 14-years-old who had a similar problem that they have or had, then they may have an incentive to want to be smarter about what they eat and at least try to eat nutritious foods so they can be healthier.  And I don't think there's anything wrong with that," he told the website.

Contact the the Butterfly Foundation for free national support on 1800 33 46 73 or support@thebutterflyfoundation.org.au.

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