The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—and the World

This wrenching yet hopeful book puts a face on an international initiative, Scaling Up Nutrition, to solve the complex problem of child stunting, mortality, and malnutrition. The title refers to the critical period from conception to age two, when malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, disease, and parental misinformation pose a heightened risk to children. In Uganda, we meet Aron, whose mother’s first child died in infancy, but who is himself thriving with an early diet of biofortified orange sweet potatoes and high-iron beans. Venturing to Chicago, Thurow describes a teenage mom waking up to find that a nurse has fed her baby a bottle of formula, undermining her breast-feeding efforts. And in the story of baby Anshika, an Indian father learns to overcome a cultural preference for male children in order to help his wife and five daughters thrive. Thurow’s powerful and persuasive account concludes by stating that the Scaling Up Nutrition campaign is “not just about better nutrition or cleaner water or a new toilet or a bed net or breakthrough vaccines alone. It’s about how they all join up together.” Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May)