Maroondah City Council’s Immunisation team is working with the Royal Children’s Hospital to establish HealthNuts, a research study on food allergy and children.

Councillor Alex Makin said HealthNuts is being run by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“The HealthNuts project team are working with Maroondah’s immunisation team to recruit participants for the study via selected immunisation sessions over the coming weeks,” said Cr Makin.

“With the incidence of food allergy rising, the project aims to measure how many people are affected by food allergies, why the number is increasing and which children are at greatest risk,” said Cr Makin.

“The HealthNuts team will be at a number of Maroondah immunisation sessions where they will provide information on the research project and invite parents of children under one year of age to participate, initially with an assessment of their allergy status,” said Cr Makin.

Participation is voluntary and will take approximately 20 minutes during the post-immunisation waiting period. Parents will be asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their own and their child’s diet and lifestyle, and their child will be required to have a skin prick test.

A positive skin prick test does not automatically mean your child has an allergy, however all children with a positive skin prick test will be invited to attend The Royal Children’s Hospital allergy clinic for further testing.

Participation in the study is voluntary and parents can withdraw at any stage of the study without any reduction in care from the participating organisations.

For more information on Council’s immunisation service contact Maroondah City Council on 1300 882 233.