Dr. Catherine Birken, MD, MSc is a general paediatrician in the division of Paediatric Medicine, Professor, University of Toronto (U of T), and a Senior Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute. She is cross appointed to institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. Her clinical care activities include attending at SickKids in the in-patient unit, and in the outpatient SickKids Obesity Management Program for children with complex obesity. Her research focus is the promotion of healthy growth, development, and well-being in young children, including the prevention of childhood obesity, and she is co-lead of TARGet Kids! primary care practice-based research network to advance child health preventative research. Dr. Birken is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research for the study of growth, health behaviours and school readiness in children. Dr. Birken is the inaugural recipient of the Edwin S.H Leong Chair in Child Health Intervention. Her goals strongly align with the vision of the Centre to promote child health equity through interventions, helping all children and their families to flourish.
Eating behaviours, and child growth and development
Objectives:
- To understand measurement of child growth in early childhood
- To evaluate eating behaviours and child learning outcomes
- To learn about early interventions – how early is too early to intervene