Having a younger sibling makes children less likely to be obese

Children without siblings are almost three times more likely to be obese, study finds

Having a younger sibling could be good for you (iStock)

Having a younger sibling makes you less likely to be obese, a new study has found.

Researchers found children with no younger siblings were almost three times more likely to be obese than those who had a sibling who was born when they were around three or four years old.

Dr Julie Lumeng at the University of Michigan followed 697 children from birth through to the age of six in research published in the journal Pediatrics.

At the age of six, children without siblings were more likely to have a BMI higher than average than their peers who had a younger brother or sister.

Researchers did not come to a certain conclusion about why children with siblings appear to be much less likely to be obese, but there are several possible answers.

“It is possible that when there is a younger sibling in the family, a child might become more active – for example running around more with their toddler sibling,” Dr Lumeng told Reuters.

Jerica Berge, a researcher at the University of Minnesota that children with siblings may be less likely to have their food intake hyper-controlled by their parents, which could mean they have healthier eating patterns.

She told Reuters: “When a new child is introduced, parents may relax their preoccupation with the older child’s eating behaviours, allowing the older chid to respond to their own satiety cues and self-regulate their eating.

“This self-regulation may lead to a healthier weight trajectory for the child with a sibling compared to a child without a sibling.”

Dr Lumeng has also researched other factors that contribute to a child’s weight, including a study that shows too much TV can put a child at risk of being overweight.