BMC Public Health 2008, 8:103 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/103 tive, this program could protect children from the development of obesity and its associated social and eco- nomic costs. Further this study has the capacity to sub- stantially strengthen our understanding of strategies that will promote health among families and may result in policy change both nationally and internationally. Competing interests The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter- ests. Authors' contributions KC took the lead in writing and designing the study sub- sequently funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Grant. She has also assisted with the modification of this grant for publication. KH contributed to the overall concept and design of the study and assisted with the writing of the grant and its modification for publication. DC, KB, JS, ZM provided expert input and support overall for the writing of this grant with particular emphasis on design, measures of physical activity and statistical analy- ses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the dedication shown by our colleague Natasha Napiza who has worked hard to transform the INFANT grant into a document suitable for publication. We would also like to thank our col- league Dr Sarah McNaughton for her considerable input into the decisions about most appropriate dietary methodologies and to Lisa Gold for her advice and support regarding the design of the economic evaluation of this program. This study has been funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (425801). References World Health Organisation: Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic : Report of the WHO consultation. 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