Regular exercise seems to reduce anger expression in overweight but otherwise healthy children, researchers said.

More than four in 10 parents with underweight and overweight children mistakenly believe their children are in the average weight range, according to University of Melbourne research.

Short sleep time is associated with overweight in children and adolescents, a core aspect of which may be attributed to reduced REM sleep, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Thursday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

Children who drink 100-percent juice are no more likely to be overweight and may have a better overall nutrient intake than children who do not drink juice, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Every day our children are bombarded with advertisements -- quite often for products that are harmful to them. Each year, the average child sees about 40,000 commercials on television alone, according to communications professor Dale Kunkel of the University of Arizona; the majority of ads targeted at them are for candy, sugared cereal, soda and fast food.

Maybe when we were their age, we walked five miles to school, rain or shine. So why don't most children today walk or bike to school?

Entrenched sedentary behavior such as watching television and playing computer video games has been the bane for years of parents of overweight children and physicians trying to help those children lose pounds.

Overweight Hispanic children with normal blood glucose (sugar) levels showed elevated markers for blood vessel inflammation that may predispose them to developing both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, says a new study led by researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center.

Less sleep can increase a child’s risk of being overweight or obese, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their analysis of epidemiological studies found that with each additional hour of sleep, the risk of a child being overweight or obese dropped by 9 percent.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found new clues to why some people overeat and gain weight while others don't.

Just three months of daily, vigorous physical activity in overweight children improves their thinking and reduces their diabetes risk, researchers say.

Children who participated in a family-based weight management program designed for inner-city minority children had better outcomes regarding weight gain, body fat, body mass index (BMI) and insulin sensitivity compared to children who received traditional weight counseling in a clinic, according to a study in the June 27 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on chronic diseases of children.