Baby's lack of sleep and obesity

I don't know about you, but my kids are not great sleepers. I strive for that one day, but right now, that's not the case. I saw this new study that says babies and toddlers who don't get enough sleep are more likely to be obese. Great! As if we don't have enough to worry about when we aren't getting good sleep ourselves!

Here are the highlights from the CNN story:

• Toddlers who sleep less than 12 hours daily are at greater risk for being overweight in preschool.


• Kids who slept the least, watched the most TV and had the greatest chance of becoming obese.


• Sleep's impact on appetite hormones may explain the effect. ("In prior studies, sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness.")

"The researcher recommended practices that teach infants to fall asleep on their own, putting them to bed when they're drowsy but not fully asleep."

I almost always put my kids to bed when they're tired, but not asleep. It doesn't work for me! They go to bed alright, they just wake up throughout the night. Hopefully after my four-year-old's tonsillectomy he will start staying asleep. We don't have a lot of obesity in my family, but I still worry about it with my kids. It's so common. I don't want them to have heart disease because of something I did when they were younger.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen