The BAIR necessities

Participation in MIS BAIR will involve:

• Agreeing to your baby being randomly allocated, shortly after birth, to be given BCG vaccine or not
• Regardless of whether they receive BCG vaccine or not
  • Completing an online 10-15 minute questionnaire every 3 months by smartphone or computer
  • Coming to The Royal Children’s Hospital at 12 months of age for a skin prick test to determine predisposition to allergy and an eczema assessment.

For BAIR babies whose skin prick test is positive, we will invite them to return for a free formal food allergy test with our allergy specialists.

Just for BAIR babies

For all BAIR babies we will provide a non-urgent paediatric advice line. Our paediatric doctors will be able to give general advice and if necessary, refer a BAIR baby directly to one of The Royal Children’s Hospital or Mercy Hospital specialty clinics.

The finer BAIR details

To understand how BCG boosts the immune system, we would like to collect some stool (poo) and small blood samples during the study.

One of these small blood samples will be collected at one to two weeks of age. We will offer all MIS BAIR babies a home visit by a paediatric doctor and nurse who will answer any general baby questions you have and collect the blood sample.

We understand that there may be reasons a parent does not want some of these samples collected. If a sample is missed, the MIS BAIR baby can continue in the study.

The MIS BAIR funds

This study is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

There will be no financial costs for participation in MIS BAIR.

Parking costs at The Royal Children’s Hospital will be covered by the study.