BASELINE: Babies After Scope: Evaluating the Longitudinal Impact Using Neurological and Nutritional Endpoints

The Departments of Paediatrics and Child Health, Obstetrics/Gynaecology and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork, and the Department of Dermatology, Trinity College, Dublin have a unique and urgent opportunity to form a birth cohort of over 2000 children whose growth and maternal health status will have been closely monitored from early pregnancy. Longitudinal monitoring of these infants will allow direct investigation of several research areas in a way which has not previously been possible in Ireland, or abroad. The investigators propose to focus on three main research themes: the effects of intrauterine growth restriction, the incidence and prevalence of food allergy and eczema in early childhood and the incidence and effects of maternal and infant vitamin D status on the growth and health of Irish children. Although the investigators initial proposal will focus on these important areas, the formation of this birth cohort will offer many opportunities for further research as the cohort grows older. It will form a unique bio-bank of information from Irish children collected longitudinally from soon after their conception. The mothers of these infants are currently being recruited, which leaves us with a narrow window of opportunity to put in place a pathway of investigation for these children. To ignore this opportunity would be to lose access to a wealth of information regarding child health and disease. The potential for this cohort to provide definitive answers to current, and future, theories of disease causation is enormous.