The Promoting health in the first 2000 days of life group focuses on research to optimise nutrition and movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep) from preconception to age five years.
We work to describe what and how parents and ‘parents to be’ and their children eat and move, how this influences their health, where they gain their information and support, and how we can most effectively and sustainably work with them to promote healthy behaviours in the early childhood period.
Our research aims to understand these issues across low and high resource countries, and countries in transition.
Our expertise
Our group has expertise across epidemiology, nutrition and dietetics, human movement and sports science, psychology, health behaviour change interventions, the use of m-health to support behaviour change, public health, implementation science, research translation and intervention scale up.
Our research
This group covers:
- Understanding the role of over-nutrition, undernutrition and movement behaviours in maternal and child health, and the developmental origins of disease
- Assessment of diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour in the pregnancy and early childhood period
- Monitoring and optimising micronutrient intakes and their impact on maternal and child health
- Improving functional outcomes in children under five years through optimised nutrition and movement
- Developing and testing interventions related to healthy eating and movement behaviours and healthy weight before, during and after pregnancy
- Working with families, health practitioners and communities to support parents to achieve the best nutrition and movement behaviours for themselves and their infants across a child’s first 2000 days of life and beyond
- Translating research into practice to achieve sustained implementation of early years interventions within a range of settings (e.g., health services, local governments, childcare, early childhood education and schools).