Start them young on those healthy habits.

Sticking to a simple routine of healthy family behavior can spell the difference between a child who’s healthy… and a child who’s obese. U.S. researchers say the routines of family meals, adequate sleep and limited television viewing may lower the risk of childhood obesity.

Each routine on its own was associated with lower obesity and more routines translated to lower obesity. 

Four-year-olds living in homes with all three routines had an almost 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than those living in homes that practiced none of these routines.

The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Pediatrics, also found eating the evening meal as a family more than five times per week, sleeping at least 10.5 hours per night; and watching TV less than two hours on weekdays were protective even among groups that typically have a high risk for obesity.
”This is important because it suggests that there’s a potential for these routines to be useful targets for obesity prevention in all children,” lead author Sarah Anderson of Ohio State University in Columbus said in a statement.

So just sticking to a few healthy habits obviously has a significant impact in the life and health of our kids. Consider this other study that shows how the early years tend to indicate a lifetime of obesity problems.

Dr. John Harrington of the Eastern Virginia Medical School said more than 50 percent of the obese children and teenagers his team studied were already overweight before they were 2 years old. 

Of the more than 100 obese subjects studied, 25 percent were overweight by 5 months of age and 90 percent were overweight by the time they turned 5 years old.

A BBC reports said all of the study’s subjects were overweight before they hit 10 years of age. The subject group had an average age of 12. 

Harrington said the medical community should pay attention to the results of the study, additional specifics of which were not released. 

”Too often, doctors wait until medical complications arise before they begin treatment,” Harrington said. 

”Getting parents and children to change habits that have already taken hold is a monumental challenge fraught with roadblocks and disappointments.

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