Charlotte Wright

Biography

I am a paediatrician and epidemiologist who has developed an internationally recognised programme of research into growth, nutrition and screening in early childhood, which has provided important evidence to underpin child health practice worldwide. My interest in nutrition began with the study failure to thrive but now extends to all aspects of growth and feeding in preschool children and obesity in older children. In the past I have run two non-drug randomised trials one of them multi- centre as well as a before-and-after intervention study. I have run two large, long-term cohorts studies. The first, which attracted two Wellcome Trust grants, followed over three thousand subjects for up to 12 years. In the latest we recruited a thousand subjects (via their mothers) immediately after birth and have maintained contact with them though infancy and into childhood. This cohort study (Gateshead Millennium Study) has already attracted nearly £1 million in research funding and is now run as a consortium between Newcastle and Glasgow University. I hold an honorary contract as a Consultant in Community Child Health with a special interest in Nutrition. I run a tertiary feeding clinic for children with severe feeding problems, usually related to long term artificial feeding and have also established a primary care network for the management of weight faltering (failure to thrive). I also have a long standing interest in the forensic assessment of sexual assault.

Research Interest

Growth charts,Eating behaviour, Body composition, Childhood obesity, Nutritional screening, The Gateshead Millennium Study.