Search
Maternal psychological distress is related to poorer physical and mental health as well as child developmental problems. Interventions that optimise maternal mental health and wellbeing during the "first 1,000 days" of life should have wide-reaching benefits for the mother and her child.
While international evidence suggests seasonal variations may influence outcomes of interventions for pediatric obesity, data for Aotearoa New Zealand are limited. We examined seasonal variations in changes in body mass index standard deviation score (BMI SDS) in young people with obesity enrolled in an intervention programme.
A mother's diet during pregnancy may influence her infant's immune development. However, as potential interactions between components of our dietary intakes can make any nutritional analysis complex, here we took a multi-component dietary analysis approach.
Ingestion of prebiotics during pregnancy and lactation may have immunomodulatory benefits for the developing fetal and infant immune system and provide a potential dietary strategy to reduce the risk of allergic diseases. We sought to determine whether maternal supplementation with dietary prebiotics reduces the risk of allergic outcomes in infants with hereditary risk.
Pregnancy is an opportunistic time for dietary intake to influence future disease susceptibility in offspring later in life. The ORIGINS Project was established to identify the factors that contribute to 'a healthy start to life' through a focus supporting childhood health and preventing disease (including non-communicable diseases).
This longitudinal analysis in Australian women evaluated change in diet quality and food and nutrient intakes from the third trimester of pregnancy to 1-year postpartum with comparison to national nutrition recommendations. Associations between diet quality, sociodemographic and health characteristics were also investigated.
Food allergy affects families' quality of life, can be lifelong and life-threatening, urging the identification of early modifiable risk factors. Formula feeding in the first days of life may increase the risk of cow's milk allergy, a risk often attributed to cow's milk allergens exposure. Early formula feeding also reduces the colostrum intake, the first 3 days' milk, which is rich in bioactive compounds critical for immune and gut health. This study investigates whether partial colostrum feeding increases the risk of food allergy beyond cow's milk.
Dr Jackie Davis BSc (Hons), PGradDipHlthProm, PhD Co-Director, ORIGINS 0478173989 jackie.davis@thekids.org.au Co-Director, ORIGINS Dr Jackie Davis
Little is known about how or when language and visuospatial processing lateralise in the brain, and if individual differences in lateralisation are related to early language or visuospatial abilities. We explored if patterns of language and visuospatial lateralisation are related to cognitive skills in young children.
Globally, rates of children with physical and mental health problems are increasing. Health issues in early childhood often persist into adulthood, highlighting the need to ensure children are supported to flourish from the start of life.