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]]>The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, examined the sleep routines of 337 US preschool children and their families, taking into account socioeconomic characteristics and observing the influence of TV time and meal routines.
Researchers considered four routines protective against childhood obesity including limited TV time, not having a bedroom TV, quality family meal time and adequate sleep.
Yet sleep was the only factor that made a difference in the results.
Children who slept 10 hours per day or more were less likely to suffer obesity than those who did not, regardless of the other protective routines.
Given the importance of sleep, the most likely factor in a child’s risk for obesity was the parental sleep routine.
In a chain reaction, parents who slept inadequately had children who did the same and were therefore more likely to be overweight.
“Parents should make being well rested a family value and a priority,” said Barbara H. Fiese, director of the U of I’s Family Resiliency Center and Pampered Chef Endowed Chair. “We viewed how long parents slept and how long children slept as part of a household routine and found that they really did go together.”
Sufficient sleep has long been linked to healthy weight management and children are hardly new study subjects.
A recent study by the University College London found that 16-month-old toddlers who slept less than 10 hours per day increased their calorie consumption by 10 percent over those who slept 13 hours per day.
A 2009 study by the European Centre of Taste Science in Dijon in central France found participants were likely to consume up to 22 percent more calories than normal after a bad night’s sleep.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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]]>“Reinforcing healthy media habits during pregnancy may help reduce infants’ mealtime media exposure and impact long-term media habits in children,” said lead author Mary Jo Messito.
For their study, researchers analyzed data from an early childhood obesity prevention program conducted for low-income Hispanic families at Bellevue Hospital Center/NYU School of Medicine in New York.
Mothers were followed until the babies were three years old. During their third trimester, 71 percent of the 189 participants reported watching TV during “some” meal times (compared to options like “never,” “often” and “always”) while 33 percent of mothers said their three-month-olds were also exposed to TV during feedings.
“Identifying specific maternal behaviors and characteristics associated with child TV viewing during meals will help early childhood obesity prevention efforts seeking to promote responsive feeding and limit TV exposure during infancy.”
The latest research builds on a body of work that has shown a link between increased screen time, poor eating habits and obesity.
Likewise, a major study that looked at 41,133 women in Arkansas found that those who gained excessive weight during pregnancy also predisposed their babies to childhood obesity. The research was published in PLoS last October.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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