Text messages promoting healthy habits can prevent obesity in very young kids The texts set goals like fewer sugary drinks or less screen time Only 7% of kids whose parents got the texts became obese by age 2, compared with nearly 13% who only got counseling in a clinic MONDAY, Nov. 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Text messages and other online feedback can help prevent obesity in very young children, a new study demonstrates. Kids had a healthier weight-for-height growth curve during their first two years if parents were offered electronic feedback on feeding habits, playtime and exercise, researchers found.
“What is kind of exciting from our study is we prevented those children who would have had an unhealthy weight in the first place and helped them have a healthier weight, which sets them up better for health throughout their lives,” said co-lead researcher , a professor of primary care at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health in Baltimore. About 1 in 5 school-aged kids were obese in 2017-2018, and these rates are expected to have increased since the pandemic, researchers said. In a prior study, Perrin and her colleagues found that in-clinic counseling improved healthy growth in newborns up to 18 months of age, but not through the age of 2.
That might be because become less frequent past a child’s first year of life, the researchers reasoned. Given that, they created a follow-up study focusing on using digital technology to continue.