Researchers found a few basic steps were associated with battling one of the nation’s health concerns, childhood obesity. Preschoolers who got enough sleep, watched limited amounts of television and regularly ate dinner with their families had a lower prevalence of obesity.

In fact, preschoolers who had all three habits were found to have “a roughly 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than those exposed to none of these routines,” according to an article published today in Pediatrics, the research journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (You can read a summary here.)

Now, preschool teachers will tell you each of these habits likely helps in plenty of other ways, concentration and social skills for example. In this sense, the report is one more reason adequate sleep, a healthy diet and limits on media consumption are elements of quality preschool.

But, how much TV, sleep and family eating are enough?

The latest research offers one idea.

In the study, children who got 10.5 hours of sleep a night, ate dinner with their families more than 5 nights a week and watched 2 hours or less of television a day were in the healthier group.

Since we know these are all healthy habits, it is also interesting to see how many families actually follow these rules. Researchers found one in seven children were in families who had these habits, while one in eight had none.

They also pointed out they found this association in both high-income and poor homes and in homes where the mother was obese. We should clarify this study didn’t make a causal link, but said findings offer “promising behavioral targets.”

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