Is your child obese? Blame TV, less sleep

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Washington, Apr 8: An American research into childhood obesity has suggested that lack of regular and adequate sleep increases the chances of infants becoming overweight.

The study published this week in the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found babies sleeping less than 12 hours a day and watching more than two hours of TV had a 16% chance of becoming obese.

The risk for those who got more sleep and watched less TV was only 1%, the research into 915 infants at Harvard Medical School suggested. “Mounting research suggests that decreased sleep time may be more hazardous to our health than we imagined. We are now learning that those hazardous effects are true even for young infants,” said Elsie Taveras, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School department of ambulatory care and prevention, who led the study.

“Our findings lend support to childhood overweight prevention interventions that target both reduction in television viewing and ensuring adequate sleep duration,” Taveras was quoted as saying. Researchers suggested lack of sleep stimulated hormones influencing appetite, leading those children to eat more. They said watching too much TV leads to more exposure to junk food advertising, which may affect diet intake of children.