Posted: June 11, 2009

New Berlin - Expecting parents in three New Berlin neighborhoods will be invited to be part of a nationwide study to improve child health, Chris Cronk of the Medical College of Wisconsin told the New Berlin Common Council on Tuesday.

The effort is part of the National Children's Study that will follow 100,000 children across the country from birth through age 21. The study will look at the effects of the environment - air, water, dust, social and parental interaction, media exposure, chemical exposures and diet - on their health and development. The study is termed by organizers as unprecedented.

Waukesha County was one of 100 counties chosen at random to participate in the study. A total of 17 neighborhoods within the county were chosen from Big Bend, Brookfield, Dousman, Hartland, Menomonee Falls, Oconomowoc, Pewaukee, Sussex and Waukesha in addition to New Berlin.

Study organizers are looking for mothers-to-be in their first trimester of pregnancy, Cronk said, but later they will look for women planning to become pregnant so that environmental factors in preconception can be evaluated.

In mid-July, a door-to-door effort will begin to recruit volunteers, Cronk said. The study will cost families nothing. New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero said he has study contact information in his office, (262) 797-2441.

The Waukesha County portion of the national study will be handled by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Children's Service Society of Wisconsin and the National Opinion Research Center. The study is funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.

"It's kind of a gift to our grandchildren," Cronk said of the long-term study.

It came about as a result of doctors seeing a number of diseases in children that were not as prevalent before, she said. Through the study, researchers hope to pin down reasons for increases in allergies, asthma, autism, diabetes, learning disabilities, obesity and other health problems in children, she said.

Chiovatero said he strongly supports the study, saying, "The children are our future."