Nuts For Babies Study

Project status: Active

Research area: Population Health > Population Allergy

This study aims to discover if what a mother eats while breastfeeding can impact her baby's allergy development.

By age one, 10 per cent of babies (one in every 10) in Australia will develop a food allergy. Evidence suggests the ideal time to prevent food allergy may be during breastfeeding, but little is known about the effect of what mothers eat while breastfeeding on the risk of food allergies in their babies.

This research is testing whether the amount of nuts a mother eats during breastfeeding has an influence on her baby’s food allergy development.

Information for participants

Who is eligible to participate?

Pregnant women with:

a singleton pregnancy (expecting one baby), and
plans to breastfeed (ideally for at least six months), and
no peanut or cashew nut allergy.

What’s involved?

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two study groups:

a ‘low peanut and cashew nut diet’ group or
a ‘high peanut and cashew nut diet’ group.

Participants will be asked to follow the diet advice for their group from when their baby is born until their baby is six months old. The study involves completing some short SMS surveys and phone calls with study staff and just one in-person visit at the end of the study.

The outcomes of any peanut and cashew nut allergies will be compared in the babies of the two groups at one year of age. 

Why participate?

Your participation will help us develop national recommendations to reduce nut allergies in babies, which may benefit you and your family in the future.
If you need any breastfeeding advice and support, we will arrange for you to be referred to a Lactation Consultant, the cost of which will be covered by this study.
You will receive infant feeding and allergy prevention guidelines, as well as education on recognising the symptoms of an allergic reaction and advice of what to do if this happens. Your baby will also receive free nut allergy testing at one year of age.

Who's conducting the study?

Nuts For Babies is led by The Kids Research Institute Australia in Perth, Western Australia (Chief Investigator: Associate Professor Debra Palmer). A Melbourne recruitment site is based at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute led by investigators Professor Kirsten Perrett and Dr Vicki McWilliam.