Maternal and Early

Childhood Growth and Development Study

The Cambridge Baby Growth Study is open to all women in early pregnancy who intend to deliver at the Rosie Maternity Hospital, Cambridge.

Study Summary

The Purpose of the Study
We are studying a group of mums and their babies to find out whether specific environmental and inherited factors (i.e. "genes") are important in regulating the growth and development of babies during pregnancy and in the first couple of years of life. In recent years it has been shown that the size of a baby at birth and the amount of growth, in terms of weight and length, occurring in the first couple of years may be important in predicting whether we develop certain health problems in later adult life, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Furthermore, it seems that more boys are being born with disorders of their genitals (eg. undescended testicles), although overall this is still a very rare occurrence. These effects could be explained by subtle changes occurring in the environment a baby is exposed to whilst in the womb, particularly to levels of glucose and to certain hormones. These changes may be occurring because of our increased exposure to certain hormone-like substances present in our surrounding environment, or possibly they may be due to the inheritance of certain genes which are known to regulate glucose and hormone levels. Genes are the coded messages in our cells that are made up from DNA. They tell the growing body how to develop and are sometimes important in determining whether we develop certain illnesses or not.

What will happen if I take part in the study?
During the pregnancy you will be asked to complete a questionnaire about your general health and life style factors. You will receive assistance from one of our research nurses with this. Blood samples will also be taken from you during the pregnancy. The first ones can be taken by your practice nurse, 1 to 2 weeks after booking, and the second ones will coincide with the glucose tolerance test at 28 weeks. After the birth of your baby, and just after the cord has been cut, we will take a sample of blood from the umbilical cord (from the end which is not attached to the baby!) as well as a piece of the placenta. For those mums who are breast-feeding we may also invite them to collect some small samples of their breast milk during the first 3 months after the birth. We will also ask you to complete another health questionnaire at this time. For your baby our study will involve performing a general examination including head circumference, weight, height, skinfold measurements, and lower leg measurements. Baby boys will be checked in particular to make sure that there are no signs of undescended testicles. This examination will be then repeated at 3, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. At 3 months we will also take a small sample of blood (less than a teaspoonful in amount) from your baby. We can do this from a small vein form the back of baby's hand using a standard "butterfly" needle. At the 12, 18 and 24 month examinations we will take a blood sample by doing a heel prick. The samples (blood, placenta and breast milk) collected from you and your baby will be analysed to measure levels of certain hormones and hormone-like substances that may have come from the environment. At 1 and 2 year checks you will be asked to complete a detailed food diary, this will add to the information obtained from our examinations of your baby. MRC Human Nutrition Research will be collecting and analysing the food diaries.

The arrangements for following up your child can be quite flexible by being linked up with any outpatients appointments that you may have. We can also offer help with travel costs if needed.

One of the blood specimens from you and your child will also be used to analyse the DNA (that is the substance in all the cells of our bodies which determine colour of hair, colour of eyes and other characteristics). This will be looked to identify common patterns in certain genes that are felt to be important in the regulation of hormone and glucose levels in pregnant women and children. If possible we would also like to get DNA samples from the child's father and from your parents. It is now becoming increasingly evident that it is not only the genes that we inherit form our parents but also in some cases whether we inherit them from our fathers or mothers which determine their influence on factors such as blood sugar or size at birth. A letter of invitation will be sent out for the child's father and your parents and we would be grateful if you could pass these on.

What are the benefits of taking part in this study?
There will be no direct benefits to either you or child from participating in this study, although the information obtained will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of factors that regulate human health and disease.

Confidentiality and access to data
All information about you and your child will be strictly confidential and will not be identified in any documents related to the research. 

Who is involved in running the Cambridge Baby Growth Study?

Here is a list of the team involved in running the study:

Research Nurses: Suzanne Smith, Amie Wardell, Karen Forbes, Elaine Marriott.

M.R.C. Epidemiology Unit Field Team: Ema de Lucia Rolfe, Laura Watson, Chris May-Hall (web site).

Administration, Sample Handling and Databases: Mark Wilson, Rachel Seear, Angie Watts.

Principal Investigators: Professor Ieuan Hughes, Professor David Dunger, Dr. Carlo Acerini, Dr. Ken Ong.

Acknowledgments
The project has been generously funded by the European Union Framework 5, the Medical Research Council, Mothercare Group Foundation, the World Cancer Research Fund and the Evelyn Trust, and their support has been instrumental in the project's success so far.

Growth Study Newsletters &

Publications Arising From The Study

• Parent's Information Leaflet about the Cambridge Baby Growth Study
• Newsletters

Spring 2005	Autumn 2005	Spring 2006
Autumn 2006	Spring 2007	Autumn 2007
Spring 2008	Autumn 2008	Summer 2009
Spring 2010	Autumn/Winter 2010	Spring/Summer 2011
	Autumn/Winter 2011	Late 2012

• Acerini CL et al., Incidence & Natural History of Cryptorchidism from Birth to 2 years - a prospective, longitudinal cohort study. Horm. Res. 2004
• Acerini CL & Hughes IA, Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals: a new and emerging public health trend? Arch. Dis. Child. 2006
• Ong KK & Loos RJ, Rapid infancy Weight Gain And Subsequent Obesity: systematic reviews & hopeful suggestions. Acta Paediatr. 2006
• Ong KK et al., Pregnancy insulin, glucose and BMI contribute to birth outcomes in non-diabetic mothers. Diabetes Care 2008
• Ong KK et al., Insulin-like growth factor I concentrations in infancy predict differential gains in body length and adiposity: the Cambridge Baby Growth Study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2009
• Acerini CA et al., The descriptive epidemiology of congenital and acquired cryptorchidism in a UK infant cohort. Arch. Dis. Child. 2009
• Thankamony A et al., Anogenital Distance from Birth to Two Years: a Population Study. Environ. Health Perspec. 2009
• Lakshman A et al., Mothers' experiences of bottle feeding: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies. Arch. Dis. Child 2009
• Petry CJ et al., Maternally transmitted foetal H19 variants and associations with birth weight. Human Genetics 2011
• Petry CJ et al., Associations between paternally transmitted fetal IGF2 variants and maternal circulating glucose concentrations in pregnancy. Diabetes 2011


To open these files you may first need to download Adobe Reader, available here for free:

News

Celebratory Meeting to Mark the Tenth Anniversary of the Cambridge Baby Growth Study
On Saturday May 7th 2011 we held a meeting/children's party to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Cambridge Baby Growth Study, where the following presentations were given. Click on the relevant link to download
the presentations in Microsoft Powerpoint or Adobe PDF formats.

• Presentation 1: "Welcome" and Chair by Professor Ieuan Hughes (powerpoint, PDF)
• Presentation 2: "Those Elusive Testes!" by Dr Carlo Acerini (powerpoint, PDF)
• Presentation 3: "Mother's Glucose Levels in Pregnancy - What Do They Mean?" by Professor David Dunger (powerpoint, PDF)
• Presentation 4: "Understanding Infant Growth and Weight Gain" by Dr Ken Ong (powerpoint, PDF)
• Presentation 5: "The Future" by Dr Carlo Acerini (powerpoint, PDF)

                                                                                            Photos From The Celebratory Meeting

Calamity the Clown with the children	The Presentations	The Baby Growth Study team
The Baby Growth Study birthday cake	Group photo	Staff from Mothercare, Cambridge

Professor Ieuan Hughes, Ian Peaccok (Mothercare Group Foundation), Terry Ndee (CUDOS)

Ian Peacock (Mothercare Group Foundation) with Baby Growth Study nurses

Press Release Issued Thursday 22nd June 2006:
A Cambridge study initiated to investigate the causes of genital defects in baby boys has reached an important watershed with the 1000th child born.

Joshua Fawcett was the 1000th baby, born on 29 April 2006 weighing eight pounds and half an ounce (3.64kg).

The Cambridge Baby Growth Study examines the factors which affect the size and weight of boys and girls in early development. Size in infancy can help predict tendencies towards diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease in adulthood. It is hoped that the data from this study may help in the future for better ante-natal care and the impact of infant nutrition on adult health.

"It's a pleasure to be involved in this research," said Mrs Fawcett, Joshua's mother. "I realise how important advances are to improving medical care for everybody in the future."

The Cambridge Baby Growth Study started as part of a European wide project to study the impact of our environment on reproductive development in boys. Occurrence of birth defects in boys has seen a significant increase in the last ten years, typically with undescended testes or hypospadias (the urinary tract opening on the side of the penis). Environmental factors have been thought to be the cause of this, specifically the mothers diet, but this study is also looking into the genetic causes of infant development.

Mrs. Fawcett, with her baby Joshua, being presented with a bottle of bubbly by Professor Ieuan Hughes, Head of the Department of Paediatrics.

Contact Details for Further Information
Cambridge Baby Growth Study Team
University Department of Paediatrics
Box 116, Addenbrooke's Hospital
Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 0QQ
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0)1223 336888
Fax.: +44 (0)1223 336996

Direct email to the Baby Growth Study team