This work builds on our report in the British Medical Journal in 2010 that mothers who experienced lower sunlight levels during early pregnancy were more likely to have offspring who later developed multiple sclerosis (MS). We now are investigating if children who develop MS have either lower vitamin D levels at birth and/or lower sun exposure during early postnatal life. The study design is a case control study where children with early onset MS are compared to healthy controls.

A new vaccine that targets the most common infection (NTHi) in the lungs of children with bronchiectasis is now available. We will assess if this vaccine is effective in reducing NTHi airway infection in children who have been immunised with this new vaccine. If effective, all children at risk of the airway infection would likely benefit from the use of this vaccine. We will also study the immune response of children who have and have not received this vaccine.

Food allergy affects ~10% of children and rates are rising. The greatest rise has occurred in children under the age of 5yr. Currently, there is no cure for food allergy. Management relies on food avoidance, which is difficult to achieve. Recent deaths in children from food allergy highlight the need for an effective treatment. This clinical trial will test a novel treatment for peanut allergy. If effective we will have a proof of principle for treatment of all food allergy.

The Australian Temperament Project is one of Australia's most mature longitudinal studies of health and wellbeing. The study has captured unique information from parents and children over a 28-year period. The ATP children have now grown up and are having children of their own. This gives us an exceedingly rare opportunity to understand how patterns of health and wellbeing are handed down across the generations - from grandparents to parents to children - to inform new directions in preventive intervention.

Our team wishes to test the effectiveness of an internet based multimodal therapy (MiTii: 'Move it To improve it') which combines upper limb training and physical activity in children's homes. The program combines visual perception and cognitive skills training, important aspects of activity engagement and participation in a virtual training environment. The feasibility of delivering MiTii has been confirmed in a pilot study of 19 children in Denmark achieving on average 35 minutes of training daily for 20 weeks with 96 percent compliance. Children made significant gains in motor and processing skills, self esteem, functional strength and visual perception. The program requires only three therapists (physiotherapist, occupational therapist and psychologist) to train 98 children. As current therapy programs are resource intensive and time consuming it is important to determine if gains from a minimally resourced remote, web based program such as MiTii are sustained over a 12 month period as this could offer a cost effective, timely model of care, particularly for rural, remote and isolated children with CP.

Dental decay is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. To examine the bacterial, environmental and social factors involved in the development of tooth decay we have enrolled 450 children from disadvantaged families into the VicGen prospective birth cohort. Data has been collected at child age 1, 6, 12 and 18 months and we propose to extend the study to when the children are aged 2_ years; providing powerful prospective, longitudinal data during a critical developmental period.

We propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial to compare a personalized alarm watch against a standard watch for enhancing timed voiding for treating daytime urinary incontinence in children. 360 children aged 5-13 years with daytime urinary incontinence will be randomized to timed voiding with either a personalized alarm watch or a standard watch for months. Primary outcome of interest will be incontinence cure rates for both watches at 3 months.