Our children are the future
Every child should have the best possible start in life. To achieve this A Better Start researchers are creating the tools and methods to predict, prevent and intervene early so children have a healthy weight, are successful learners and teenagers can access the tools they need to look after their mental health.
A Better Start is the National Science Challenge working to help children, teenagers, their whanau and family achieve the best possible start in life. Our job is to find practical, evidence-based solutions that make a measurable difference for tamariki.
We can do that only when we work with communities, draw together indigenous and Western approaches to knowledge and bring the best researchers from different disciplines here and overseas to take a holistic approach rather than address health, wellbeing and learning issues in isolation.
About
Improving the potential for all young New Zealanders to lead healthy and successful lives
The Science
Collaborative research and science excellence
News
Updates and events
News and events
Bigger babies at risk of obesity in adulthood: study
Big, ‘bonny’ babies are traditionally celebrated as pictures of health, but a new international study shows women born heavy were on average nearly 4kg heavier by their mid-twenties, when they were also 50 percent more likely to develop obesity. The study, an...
Helping to support health decisions about mental health
Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick has taken a key role as co-ordinating editor of the Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Group (CCMD) and director of the CCMD satellite on children and young people's mental health. Associate Professor Hetrick and her team are currently...
Text tips boost parenting confidence
Could feeling more confident and connected parenting your teens be as simple as receiving text messages? Emerging research from the University of Auckland suggests it can. A research team from the University’s School of Population Health has successfully trialled...
Study finds antibiotics are unlikely to be a major contributor to childhood obesity
A Better Start National Science Challenge’s research into the association between antibiotic exposure and childhood obesity is one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted. It used a sample size of nearly 290,000 children and their mother’s (151,359 children...
E Tipu e Rea
Grow and Branch Forth
E Tipu e Rea is A Better Start’s Māori name.
In 1949, shortly before his death, Māori leader and scholar Sir Āpirana Turupa Ngata of Ngāti Porou wrote into the autograph book of schoolgirl Rangi Bennett a passage about his vision for Māori youth.
E tipu e rea mō ngā rā o tō ao
Ko tō ringa ki ngā rākau a te Pākehā
Hei ora mō te tinana
Ko tō ngākau ki ngā tāonga a ō tīpuna Māori
Hei tikitiki mō tō māhuna
Ko tō wairua ki tō atua
Nānā nei ngā mea katoa.
Grow and branch forth for the days destined to you
Your hands to the tools of the Pākehā
For the welfare of your body
Your heart to the treasures of your ancestors
adornments for your brow
Your spirit to god
Who made all things.
