Sleep Habits To Prevent Childhood Obesity
There are more and more obesity problems in the general population and in the child population in particular. The increase in childhood obesity may be due to such obvious issues as sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity or poor eating habits. In addition, bad sleep habits also negatively influence this aspect.
Childhood obesity is not an issue that should be overlooked because it can have a very negative impact on the present and future health of children. Doctors and scientists are concerned about the increase in obesity in children and young people because obesity can lead, already in childhood, to the following health problems:
- heart disease caused by high cholesterol and / or hypertension
- type 2 diabetes
- asthma
- Sleep apnea
- social discrimination
Sleep habits and childhood obesity
In addition to taking measures regarding children’s nutrition and physical activity, another important issue to consider is that of sleeping habits.
In this sense, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine, parents who teach their children techniques to encourage healthy sleep habits at bedtime can help prevent obesity. There appear to be strong links between poor sleep and childhood obesity.
The team studied the use of the intervention using data from the INSIGHT study (Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories), a longitudinal trial study looking at how responsive parenting intervention can prevent obesity.
For the study, 291 mother-child pairs were recruited and the mothers were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received obesity prevention education that covered behaviors related to sleep, bedtime routines, and improving sleep duration, as well as avoiding feeding and rocking children to sleep. The other group, the control group, was trained for the prevention of sudden infant death syndrome.
Proper techniques when putting babies to bed
The study showed that babies of parents who had learned bedtime techniques and who went to bed early had a more consistent sleep routine and slept longer than babies in the control group.
Babies whose parents had applied the techniques were also more likely to calm down and fall asleep without being fed and were less likely to be fed again when they woke up during the night. In addition, at 9 months, babies who fell asleep alone and went to bed early slept an average of 80 minutes longer than those who went to bed late and did not fall asleep alone.
The team of researchers also observed that the intervention also had a positive effect on obesity, not just on the quality and quantity of sleep. They found that the babies in the group applying the bedtime techniques gained weight more slowly than the control group and were less likely to be overweight by the age of one year.
Putting the baby to bed early is essential
Researchers explain that many parents try to keep their babies awake longer thinking that later they will sleep more during the night and not wake up. However, this research shows that this is not true and that when parents keep babies awake longer, they only get babies to sleep less.
Researchers recommend that babies get more sleep by going to bed early because, regardless of what time they go to bed, babies will still wake up at night. The key to getting them to wake up less and calm down on their own is not to set the expectation that they will be fed every time they wake up.
In addition to helping prevent obesity, instilling better sleep habits also adds health benefits to both parents and children. In fact, lack of sleep has been shown to have a negative effect on the development of children and the psychological well-being of parents.
