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Research

Infant allergy is the most common early manifestation of an increasing propensity for inflammation and immune dysregulation in modern environments. Refined low-fibre diets are a major risk for inflammatory diseases through adverse effects on the composition and function of gut microbiota. This has focused attention on the potential of prebiotic dietary fibres to favourably change gut microbiota, for local and systemic anti-inflammatory effects.

Research

The potential for human-computer interaction to have a substantial impact on adults is well documented. However, its potential importance prior to birth has rarely been reported. Parental use of smartphones and tablet computers could influence the relationship between parent and baby during pregnancy (prenatal attachment) and thus child development.

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Primary (or elementary) school teachers are often relied upon to provide children with opportunities for physical literacy development; however, many of these teachers feel they lack the skills to effectively promote or ‘teach’ physical literacy.

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Appropriate innate immune function is essential to limit pathogenesis and severity of severe lower respiratory infections (sLRI) during infancy, a leading cause of hospitalization and risk factor for subsequent asthma in this age group.

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Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) exposure during pregnancy is linked to serious adverse child outcomes, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. The Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP) supports women with problematic AOD use, who are pregnant or have young children, and are not effectively engaging with services. PCAP has been shown to reduce alcohol exposed pregnancies, promote AOD abstinence, increase employment and family planning and improve child outcomes.

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The extent of lung hypoplasia impacts the survival and severity of morbidities associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

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Daily physical activity is critical during the early years of life for facilitating children's health and development. A large proportion of preschool children do not achieve the recommended 3 h of daily physical activity. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are a key setting to intervene to increase physical activity. There is a significant need for ECEC specific physical activity policy, including clearer guidelines on the amount of physical activity children should do during care, and strategies for implementation of these guidelines.

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Status epilepticus is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. While vaccine-proximate status epilepticus (VP-SE) has rarely been associated with cases of Dravet syndrome, it is not known whether VP-SE differs clinically from non-vaccine proximate status epilepticus (NVP-SE).

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Despite the wealth of knowledge about the impact of bullying victimization, information gaps exist about how traditional and cyber bullying in early adolescence is associated with emotional wellbeing, namely, indicators of positive wellbeing.

Research

Reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child protection system is a key target for the Australian government. We aimed to provide more recent evidence on the population-level cumulative incidence of contacts for Aboriginal children with child protective services in Western Australia.