Skipping Breakfast and Not Enough Sleep Can Make Children Overweight

Mothers smoking in pregnancy, children skipping breakfast and not having a regular bedtime or sufficient sleep all appear to be important factors in predicting whether a child will become overweight or obese, according to new research led by UCL.

All three are early life factors which can be modified and the research highlights the possibility that prompt intervention could have an impact in curbing the growth in childhood overweight and obesity.

The paper, which was published in US journal Pediatrics, is the first research in the UK to look at the patterns of body mass index (BMI) weight development in the first 10 years of a child’s life and to examine the lifestyle factors that appear to predict weight gain.

Excerpted from sciencedaily.com

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