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Research project

Common Infant Symptoms

  • Research groups:
  • Lead researcher:
  • Research funder:
    National Institute of Health and Care Research
  • Status:
    Active

Project overview

In the first year of life, babies commonly experience symptoms such as crying or vomiting. Such symptoms may have an underlying medical cause but are usually self-limiting and can be viewed as part of 'normal' baby behaviour. Baby crying, vomiting or other symptoms such as food aversion may be given a diagnostic label of cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) or gastro-oesophageal reflux, which can cause unintended harms and is associated with significant resource use for the NHS. There has been a huge increase in prescribing for specialised formula milk and anti-reflux medicine without any evidence of rising prevalence, suggestive of over-diagnosis and overprescribing.

We want to chat to parents of babies who have had any or multiple common symptoms (such as the symptoms listed below) when they were less than 4 months old, even if they have never consulted a GP or a nurse about this. We would also like to speak to parents who have considered Cow’s Milk Allergy, Reflux or Colic (whether or not they have received a diagnosis of this).

Local Investigator(s): Dr Ingrid Muller

Study team: Samantha Hornsey

Co-applicants:
Dr Miriam Santer, Dr Daniela Ghio, Dr Elizabeth Lovegrove, Kate Sykes
Collaborators: Dr Robert Boyle

Contact: I.Muller@soton.ac.uk 

Staff

Lead researcher

Dr Ingrid Muller BSc, MSc, PhD, CPsychol, FHEA

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Self-management of long-term conditions
  • Behavioural health interventions
  • Digital health

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

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