Babies and toddlers who get less than 12 hours of sleep a day have a greater risk of being overweight in preschool, according to a Harvard study in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
Researchers evaluated reports from mothers on their babies' sleep habits, as well as measurements of the child's weight, height and skin-fold thickness. They combined information collected starting when the child was 6 months of age, and then at 1 and 2 years old. When the child reached 2, mothers were asked about their television viewing habits. They found that of the children who slept 12 hours or more a day, 7 percent were obese by the age of 3. Of the short-sleepers, or those who slept less than 12 hours a day, 12 percent were obese by that age. And 17 percent of the short-sleepers who watched two hours or more of TV a day were obese by age 3.
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