I’m 14 weeks pregnant, and for a bit of backstory I struggled with eating disorders and mental health related to body issues as a teenager and into my 20s. I’m now 28, and much better, although now that I’m pregnant I’m having ‘wobbles’ in relation to getting a belly and gaining weight.

My in-laws know about this, but it’s considered normal in their family to joke around and call each other fat or make fun of how much each other is eating at dinner for example. They do it to me and I usually just brush it off, but now I’m pregnant I’m finding it harder to ignore.

We went round there a few days ago and the first thing my brother in law said to me was ‘you look like you need to do some exercise’. When we told them we were expecting a baby a few weeks ago, 2 of them made comments about how I’m going to get ‘fat’ now. I posted a photo on FB yesterday showing my tiny little baby bump and my sister in law commented that I needed to ‘lay off the potatoes’. I’ve not gained any weight, in fact when we revealed to them I had actually lost 2kg from being unwell.

As a family, they are slightly bigger than me and my family. I know they don’t mean it to be horrible, but it’s really getting me down to the point where I don’t want to see them or share any photos because I know one of them will comment. I told my husband that I really don’t like it when they do that but he wasn’t much help. He understands where I’m coming from but also can’t understand why I can’t just ignore it.

What should I do? Sorry it’s so long!