We all know how important sleep is for maintaining proper weight. Now the importance of sleep for the children is being established by the researchers at Montreal. The researchers at University of Montreal found that 26 out of 100 children with a daily sleep of less than 10 Hrs may become overweight by 6 years of age. The research that observed amongst children between 6 months to 6 years old established that around 90 % children suffer from some kind of sleep problem like bed-wetting, night terrors and teeth grinding.

While for around 70% of the children the problems get over with time, for the rest the problems continue and makes it difficult for them to have a sound sleep for long hours. The lack of sleep is known to affect the learning ability of the children but this research at Universite de Montreal focused on its correlation with the tendency of children to become overweight and hyperactive. The relationship between lack of sleep and the tendency to become overweight was attributed to the release of ‘appetite controlling hormones’ during sleep.

One of the researchers Dr Jacques Montplaisir, director of sleep disorder center at Sacre-Coeur Hospital said "When we sleep less, our stomach secretes more of the hormone that stimulates appetite," and adds "And we also produce less of the hormone whose function is to reduce the intake of food."

Dr Montplaisir also pointed out the fact that lack of sleep also results in hyperactivity among the children who slept less. The results of the research indicated that about 22 % of the kids who slept for less than 10 Hrs when they were 2 ½ years were found to be hyperactive at 6 years of age.

According to Montplaisir, "In adults, inadequate sleep translates into sleepiness, but in children it creates excitement."

This sleeplessness can effectively be handled and rectified early before it gets worse. All it needs is little bit of planning and inculcating the right mental attitude.

Are you keeping a watch on your child’s weight properly? If you think you are then here is one amazing fact that you must be aware of! According a recent study in the area of eating and weight related disorders by Dr. Pene Schmidt of University of Melbourne, 43% parents get it all wrong when it comes to judging their child’s weight. They believe their underweight or overweight child to be of right weight.

Some facts that this study reveled were as follows:

• Almost half of overweight children’s parents thought their child to be of correct weight.
• About 43% parent of underweight children’s considered their child to be of correct weight.
• Of the average weight child’s parents, more than 80% thought their child to be of average weight.
• Parents of male child usually reported him to be underweight as compared to the parents of female child.
• While lesser % accurately identified their child to be underweight, a lesser % of male child’s parents identified accurately an overweight child.
• Concern towards their child being overweight is prevalent in double the parents as compared to the parents in which the concern of their child being underweight is there.
• About 40% girls and 50% boys who were underweight could correctly assessed their weight.

The other important fact that this study reveled was that there is a difference in the classification of a child as overweight in the two methods that are used for such classification i.e. BMI and waist circumference method. More kids fall into overweight classification as per BMI method than as per waist circumference method.

The purpose of the research was to find out the assessment of the parents regarding the kid’s weight as they can take the required weight correction measures on time if they find the kids to be underweight or overweight. "Parents are unlikely to take the necessary preventative actions if the perception of their child’s weight – whether underweight or overweight – is incorrect,” Dr Schmidt says.

The study reveled a strange fact that there is a small percentage of parents who mistakenly take their underweight kids to be overweight and vice versa.

The study throws light on the need of a well-defined weight classification method for the information of the parents so that they are able to identify overweight or underweight kids easily and correctly.

Unless there is a medical reason obesity in children happens due to the habits the inculcate while growing up.  These days most of the things ready-made and the kids don’t have to work hard to get them.  On top of that most of the entertainment and gaming these days happens indoors and there are very little incentives to go out and play in the open.  Besides it is not very safe these days for kids to move around in the neighborhood without adult supervision.

This was not the case when we were small.  The surroundings were safer, we didn’t watch much television and there were no videogames.  Okay, we had videogames but the never somehow managed to stop us from going out and play or simply full around in the wilderness.  We didn’t even eat much junk food.  These days most of the meals constitute of junk food and children prefer soda overwater whenever they feel thirsty, not realizing that soda makes them more thirsty and dehydrates their bodies.

There are many behavioral management weight loss programs that can help overweight kids lose weight and avoid certain ailments and that is exactly what a new study is trying to find out in the USA.

"Effective prevention is the best way to stem the childhood obesity epidemic, but we also have to find effective and healthy ways of helping our children and teens who already are obese get to a healthier weight," AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy said in an agency news release.

Obese children and their families may be discouraged about their weight, but our review found there are programs out there that can help kids to either gain weight more slowly as their grow or, where appropriate, lose weight," Dr. Evelyn Whitlock, associate director of the AHRQ-supported Oregon Evidence-Based Practice Center at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, said in the news release.

During the study children who attended the behavioral management program gained just one pound compared to 17 pounds among those who didn’t attend the program.