About 182 million children in poor nations lack nurture; pollution, climate change risk factors: Study

Child development impacted by environmental factors, highlighting importance of early childhood care and education programs in LMICs.

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), three-fourths of those aged three or four years lack -- nearly 182 million children -- access to adequate nurture, thereby risking healthy development, according to a new series paper, published in The Lancet journal.

Child development is also affected by air pollution, climate change, and exposure to chemicals, which are emerging environmental risk factors, said an international team, including researchers from the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC), New Delhi.

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The series builds on the foundation of the first 1,000 days of life -- referring to the time period starting conception until two years old -- and highlights how the 'next 1,000 days' (from age two to age five) is a crucial window of opportunity for providing nurturing care to children, the researchers said.

During this stage of "next 1,000 days", children are often not in direct regular contact with health or education services, with fewer than one in three children aged three or four attending early childhood care and education programmes in LMICs, said the researchers.

The authors called for an increased investment for this stage of child development, with a particular focus on improving access to high quality childhood care and education programmes, which should involve adequately paid and trained teachers and reasonable teacher-student ratios.

These programmes should also include child-centred play, evidence-based curricula, and warm, stimulating, and responsive classroom interactions, they said.