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High levels of sedentary behaviour are associated with poor child health outcomes such as obesity. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are a key intervention setting. Most ECEC policy-based interventions focus on children's nutrition and physical activity with few aimed at children's sedentary behaviour.
Shannon Simpson BMedSci (hons), PhD Head, Strong Beginnings Research, Co-head Foundations of Lung Disease 08 6319 1631 Shannon.simpson@thekids.org.au
Dynamic molecular changes in early life follow a robust ontogeny as the infant immune system adapts to the demands of its new environment. Studies of plasma immunomodulatory cytokines and chemokines have previously demonstrated ontogenetic patterns of immune development across the first week of life. However, how plasma cytokine and chemokines concentrations evolve over the first 4 months of life remains unknown.
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are bioactive carbohydrates abundant in human milk that shape the infant gut microbiome, yet their influence on the oral microbiome remains poorly understood. This study investigated associations between HMO concentrations and infant HMO intakes and the composition of the oral microbiome in predominantly and exclusively breastfed infants.
Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is a common infection at birth with the potential to cause significant and permanent morbidity, most commonly hearing loss. Targeted cCMV testing programmes use hearing loss as an indicator of an infant being at high risk of the infection and thereby can 'target' or focus testing on those at greatest risk. Australian and International guidelines recommend that high-risk infants be offered cCMV testing, yet across Australia, a formal testing system does not exist.
Movement is at the core of human existence. For infants and children, exploratory movement offers a scaffold for important learning and development outcomes, and in adolescents and adults, regular activity is key for promoting good physical and mental health.
Preterm infants are commonly treated with antibiotics on admission to the neonatal unit as part of routine care. We aimed to identify infants <32 weeks' gestation at low risk of early-onset sepsis (EOS) in whom antibiotics could be safely withheld.
Human milk is a rich source of immunomodulatory factors that influence the development of the infant immune system, including susceptibility to allergic diseases. Among these components, milk antibodies have been extensively studied for their role in protecting against infections; however, their potential contribution to allergy prevention may be equally important. The mechanisms of protection include allergen exclusion, enhanced and targeted antigen presentation, immune modulation via shaping of the infant gut microbiome, and direct regulation of gut immune responses.
Ambient heat exposure during pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes, and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes are an emerging concern. This scoping review synthesises human and animal evidence on the association between prenatal ambient heat exposure and poor neurodevelopmental outcomes.
To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Quality of Life Inventory -Disability (QI-Disability) for individuals with Dravet syndrome (DS) or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), two rare developmental and epileptic encephalopathy conditions.