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Pregnant women are advised to take folic acid (FA) supplements before conception and during the first trimester of pregnancy. Many women continue FA supplementation throughout pregnancy, and concerns have been raised about associations between excessive FA intake and adverse maternal and child health outcomes.
Little is known about how sun exposure may affect the maternal skin barrier during pregnancy when many hormonal and physiological changes occur. In this longitudinal observational study, 50 pregnant women were recruited at 18-24 weeks' gestation, 25 in summer-autumn, and 25 in winter-spring. At three time points in pregnancy at 18-24, 28-30, and 36-38 weeks' gestation, participants completed a validated sun exposure questionnaire and had skin permeability and surface pH measured on the volar forearm.
Nutrition is a modifiable lifestyle factor that may play a role in allergic disease prevention. This article summarizes current evidence on the antenatal diet as a consideration for strategies to prevent child food allergy. As eczema in early infancy substantially increases the risk of food allergy development, the effects of maternal dietary intakes during pregnancy on infant eczema outcomes will also be discussed.
Complementary feeding induces dramatic ecological shifts in the infant gut microbiota toward more diverse compositions and functional metabolic capacities, with potential implications for immune and metabolic health. The aim of this study was to examine whether the age at which solid foods are introduced differentially affects the microbiota in predominantly breastfed infants compared with predominantly formula-fed infants.
Reliance on increasing use of dietary supplementation and fortification (eg, with folate) to compensate for increased consumption of processed foods is also...
Vitamin D status in early life has been linked to the risk of allergic disease in multiple observational studies.
Maternal fish oil supplementation during pregnancy has been associated with altered infant immune responses and a reduced risk of infant sensitization and...
Studies addressing the ontogeny of the innate immune system in early life have reported mainly on Toll-like receptor (TLR) responses in infants living in...
We compared neonatal T reg from children born in western conditions (Australia) with those of neonates born in high microbial conditions (Papua New Guinea)...
Suggests that IL-1R1 expression provides an additional level of Myd88-dependent signaling during this period of heighted susceptibility to infection.