How early bed times can cut child obesity
PUTTING your baby to bed early won’t just give you some precious free time – it could also boost your child’s health for decades to come.
Research shows that babies who get into a good bedtime routine are half as likely to be overweight at the age of one as other youngsters.
The discovery is important because infants who pile on the pounds in the first year of life are more likely to be obese later in life, putting them at risk of heart disease, diabetes and a host of other ills.
And while new parents may find it hard to process warnings about the long-term consequences of obesity, they are likely to welcome advice on getting a better night’s sleep with open arms.
Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine in the US studied more than 250 first- time mothers and their babies. The women were visited by nurses, with half given safety advice and the others information on sleep, including bedtime routines and feeding techniques.
Tips included setting an early bedtime and letting the child cry themselves to sleep if they woke up, rather than feeding them.
Researcher Dr Jennifer Savage said: ‘Feeding a baby can be an easy and fast way to quiet an upset baby. But we don’t want parents to use feeding to soothe their baby if the baby isn’t hungry – crying is one of the last things a baby is likely to do if they are hungry.’
At nine months, infants who were put to bed by 8pm and left when they cried during the night slept almost an hour and a half longer than babies whose bedtimes were later. And by the age of one, they were half as likely to be overweight, the journal JAMA Pediatrics reports. Study author Professor Ian Paul said: ‘A lot of parents try to keep their babies up longer, thinking that then they’ll sleep longer at night and they won’t wake up.
‘We found that’s not true. When parents keep babies up longer, they just sleep less. If you want your baby to sleep longer and better, put them to sleep earlier.
‘Regardless of what time you put babies to sleep, they wake overnight.
‘If we don’t set the expectation that they’re going to be picked up and fed, they learn to soothe themselves back to sleep.’
Difficult bedtimes and less sleep have also been shown to affect a children’s development and their parents’ mental health.
Professor Paul added: ‘It is important to establish good sleep habits early in life for health reasons, including obesity prevention, but also for the emotional health of parents and families.
‘New parents of infants aren’t thinking about obesity. Our intervention is designed to prevent obesity without having to explicitly talk to parents about their child’s weight.’
Scientists have been aware of the strong links between sleep and childhood obesity for a long time. During the INSIGHT (Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories) study, parents were taught several techniques to help their children sleep longer. These included rocking, established routines and early bedtimes.
Dr Savage said: ‘By getting to know their baby’s temperament and establishing predictable routines early in life, parents are able to help their baby learn self-regulation.
‘We hope that by teaching the principles of responsive parenting as an early intervention, the effects will be sustained throughout the child’s life.’
‘Babies learn to soothe themselves’