A comprehensive text program can help prevent childhood obesity, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Preventing obesity in young children is possible using a program of texting new parents, a study co-led by Johns Hopkins pediatrics expert Eliana Perrin has shown. All parents enrolled in the study received written information on sleep, diet, activity and screentime.

Perrin: Half the parents got that intervention. The other half got that plus a texting intervention. The texting intervention we turned all of the messages we wanted parents to hear into goals. We'd set goals through texts with families and then we check in on how they were doing with their goals. If they were doing really well we'd cheerlead them and give them lots of enthusiastic replies and if they were doing a little less well we'd give them tips and say here's how you can do better with your goal.            :28

Perrin says all text messages were first vetted by a group of parents to make sure they were appropriate and sensitive to the concerns of parents of a newborn. Almost 900 pairs of moms and new babies were enrolled, with the majority of them remaining in the study over the two year study period. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.