Lack of Sleep May Expose Infants to Obesity

By Anna Boyd
April 8th 2008

Mothers should be very careful at the amount of sleep their newborn babies are getting, according to a new study published Monday, which found that infants who sleep an average of less than 12 hours per day may have an increased risk of being overweight in early childhood.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School recorded the sleep habits of 915 children at ages 6 months, 1 year and 2 years, using questionnaires and in-person interviews. At each visit, they recorded the infants’ length and weight and had parents report on the number of hours their children watched television or videos.

The study concluded that the more sleep infants got, the less likely they were to be overweight at age 3. Babies who slept for less than 12 hours a day were twice as likely to be overweight compared with children who slept more. Those who slept less than 12 hours per day and watched 2 hours or more of TV per day were 6 times more likely to be overweight. the rest image