Alessandro Zangrilli
Child Sleeping
Experienced parents and pediatricians agree that establishing daily routines in the lives of young children is extremely important. Not only do family routines help organize life and busy schedules, but they also give children a sense of comfort and consistency. Now, a new study released by the International Journal of Obesity further supports the benefits of routines, The findings show that kids who follow regularly scheduled meal times, bedtimes, and limited screen times are less likely to be obese and more likely to be emotionally healthy.
Although past studies have highlighted the link between a lower risk of obesity when preschoolers had enough sleep, set family meal times, and restricted screen time, this new research is the first to ever examine the connection between these routines and their subsequent health outcomes in the preteen years. The results show a link between those early childhood routines and the capability for preschoolers to discover how to self-regulate their emotions, as well as their future issues with weight gain. In essence, the study found that preschoolers with established bedtimes, mealtimes and screen times appear to not only have better self-regulated emotional health now, but also better emotional and physical health later in life.
Of the three routine types, researchers found that the most important one to a child’s future health was a regular bedtime. By examining nearly 11,000 children during the long-term study and tracking their activities and health outcomes for over ten years, the finding showed obesity risks were greatest for children who had the least consistency in their bedtimes.
Although the study does not definitively prove that childhood routines prevent later obesity, enough evidence has been found to indicate that the benefits do exist. For more information about the study, see article on USNews.
