Apr

14

Topic: Childhood Obesity News - Babies' Sleep Tied to Childhood Obesity - The Associated Press

Filed Under Childhood Obesity News | Leave a Comment

The findings, published in April’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, are based on mothers’ reports of their babies’ sleep habits and TV viewing, and direct measures of the children’s height, weight and skinfold thickness. They found 586 of the children slept an average of 12 or more hours a day and 329 of the children slept less than that. Adding TV to the picture, 17 percent of those who slept less than 12 hours a day and watched two or more hours of television a day were obese by the time they were 3. The researchers took into account other risk factors for obesity, including TV viewing, and still found the children who slept fewer than 12 hours a day had a doubled risk of being obese at age 3 than the other children. Pat Prinz of the University of Washington, who wasn’t involved in the study, said parents who rely on day care should make sure their toddlers have plenty of time to run, jump and play. Read Childhood Obesity

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