Nutrition in Early Life projects
Featured projects
The PrEggNut Study – Maternal diet rich in eggs and peanuts to reduce food allergies: a randomised controlled trial
The SYMBA Study - Promoting Gut Health (SYMBiosis) for Allergy prevention
Nutrition in Early Life
The vision of the Nutrition in Early Life team is to work together with the community to produce quality research, for improving our knowledge of how a mother’s diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding can improve both her and her child’s health.
The Nutrition in Early Life team conducts research investigating nutritional strategies for improved maternal and child health, including clinical trials, mechanistic studies and translatable research activities.
Our research includes identifying nutritional and environmental factors which influence the developing human immune system, particularly factors which predispose to allergic diseases (eczema, food allergy, hay fever and asthma in early childhood), as well as intervention studies for the prevention of allergic disease in childhood.
Team Highlights
- We have recruited more than 2000 mothers and babies in a current NHMRC funded large-scale multi-centre (Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) food allergy prevention study – known as the PrEggNut Study. This study is aiming to determine whether the risk of developing a food allergy can be reduced by a maternal diet rich in eggs and peanuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- In 2023, we have completed the 1-year-old child follow-up and commenced the 5-year-old child follow-up of the NHMRC funded allergy prevention study, which recruited 652 mothers and their babies – known as the SYMBA Study. This study is aiming to determine whether the risk of a child developing any allergic diseases (including eczema, food allergy, asthma and hay fever) can be reduced by a maternal diet supplemented with prebiotics (a type of fibre) during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- We have commenced recruitment for a new NHMRC funded large-scale multi-centre (Perth and Melbourne) food allergy prevention study – known as the Nuts For Babies Study. This study is aiming to determine whether the amount of nuts a mother eats during breastfeeding can reduce the risk of nut allergy development in babies.
Team leader
Debbie Palmer
BSc BND PhD
Head, Nutrition in Early Life
Team members (6)
Anita Jorgensen
National PrEggNut Study Coordinator
Emma Prescott
SYMBA Study Coordinator
Summer Walker
Research Assistant
Deborah Lawrence
Research Nurse
Michelle Thompson
Research Assistant
Kelly Faulkner
Research Nurse
Reports and Findings
The National Allergy Centre of Excellence–Addressing Australia's Allergy Burden
Australia has one of the highest rates of food allergy, anaphylaxis hospital admissions and anaphylaxis fatalities worldwide. These trends and sustained advocacy prompted a 2019 Parliamentary Inquiry into Allergies and Anaphylaxis. Among 250 submissions, the Centre for Food Allergy Research called for a national research-coordinating centre and comprehensive allergy research funding.
Chlorinated drinking water exposure enriches antimicrobial resistance pathways in the infant gut microbiome: a randomized trial
Water chlorination is essential for controlling harmful microbes in drinking water; however, the antimicrobial effects of chlorine-based disinfectants present in tap water may influence early-life gut microbial ecology.
Body mass index, prebiotic supplementation during pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus risk: an effect modification analysis from a randomised controlled trial
Prebiotic dietary supplementation has been shown to improve glucose homeostasis in type 2 diabetes patients. The aim of this analysis was to determine whether pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) modifies the effect of prebiotic supplementation from mid-pregnancy on reducing the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus
Nuts For Babies Study: protocol for a randomised controlled trial in Australia
The predisposition to food allergy development and the induction of allergen-specific immune responses appears to be initiated early in infancy. Early exposure to food allergens, such as peanut and cashew nut, via human milk is likely important in initiating oral tolerance and reducing risk of food allergy development. This trial aims to determine if the risk of developing peanut and cashew nut allergy during infancy can be reduced by a high peanut and cashew nut maternal diet during lactation.