Wouldn’t it be exciting to be part of groundbreaking childhood nutrition studies?

There is growing community awareness of the importance of nutrition for children. How children eat and grow may have a lasting affect on their health and may even be a predictor of life expectancy.  Families can play a part in ensuring the future health of their children by providing the right quantity and quality of food and adequate exercise. Here at the Children’s Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), families can also play a part in helping the children of tomorrow by enrolling their children in some of our groundbreaking nutrition studies.

Research outcomes help develop and shape future clinical practices that may benefit children long into the future.

We are currently seeking children aged 18 months – 17 years and women pregnant with their first child to help us with our studies into children’s nutrition.
   
Please scroll down to view our current studies.

More information

Doctor's referral needed

Focus	Type of person needed	Time commitment	About the study
Infant Feeding	Parents or guardians of infants or small children younger than 24 months	Approximately 25 minutes to complete the survey	Were you affected by the recent natural disasters with your baby or toddler?  Mothers or foster parent/guardian of infants aged younger than 2 years, who were affected for even a short time by recent weather events in Queensland, are invited to complete this survey.  If you were evacuated from your home; isolated from family support or food supply; lived in a community, suburb or property that was isolated by the emergency; suffered failure of power or water supply; or in any way lacked the resources to feed your infant, we invite you to complete this survey by clicking here.  More info >
Obesity	Young boys and girls between the ages of 12-18 years, who are overweight or obese (95th percentile for body mass index for age and gender). Parents need to be able to give informed consent and the family  and young person should be motivated to lose weight and change their lifestyle.	9 months	The aim of the Eat Smart study is to compare the effectiveness of a reduced carbohydrate and a low fat diet in overweight young people and to determine the usefulness and suitability of a life skills program (FRIENDS for Life) in preparing families and young people to make lifestyle change. More info >
Cerebral Palsy	Children with cerebral palsy or children with delayed motor development that may be due to cerebral palsy, born in Queensland between September 2006 and December 2009.	6 hours over 5 years	The broad aim of this study is to investigate the influence of dietary intake, physical activity (adjusted for motor severity), growth and body composition on health outcomes, participation and quality of life in a prospective population based study of young children with cerebral palsy. More info >
Cerebral Palsy 2	Typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy aged 3 – 4 years (born in Qld after January 2006)	1.5 hrs at 1 visit	The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between diet, hydration and body composition in a population of young children with cerebral palsy in comparison to age and gender matched typically developing children. More info >
Cerebral Palsy 3	Typically developing children aged 18-36 months	40-60 minute appointment and 3 day activity log	This study is looking at the relationships between feeding and swallowing skills, growth, nutrition and physical activity in young children with cerebral palsy. The typically developing children will provide important information on expected typical performance of children in this age range. More info >
Crohn's disease	Children up to the age of 18 years diagnosed with Crohn's disease as well as typically developing children to act as control subjects	3 visits x 3 1/2 hours	We are interested in looking at how much bone there is and how strong bones are, in children with Crohn’s disease. We also want to know how the surrounding muscles help improve the strength of bones, and determine the relationship between bones, muscles and fracture risk. The findings of this study will provide important information as to how to target interventions to improve bone health, & ultimately, reduce the risk of fracture in children with Crohn’s disease. More info >