This paper examines the impact of climatic shocks on young children's nutritional indicators, using the Peruvian Young Lives project data set. Special attention is given to child nutrition and climatic shocks, since malnutrition in young children may have long-term negative effects, and the covariate nature of climatic shocks may make them more difficult to cope with than other shocks. This paper finds that climatic shocks led to a significant increase in child stunting, reducing the height-for-age z-score of five-year-old children by 10%.

Although poverty rates have reduced during the last 15 years, Peru is still one of the countries in Latin America with the highest level of income inequality. Nearly one out of two Peruvians lives in poverty – three out of five in the case of children – and one out of five is extremely poor.

Animal source foods (ASF) are important sources of bioavailable micronutrients often lacking in the diets of young children. Young Lives is an international study of children growing up in poverty. The monetary value of 32 food groups bought or home produced and eaten during the preceeding 2 weeks was reported by 2049 families with children 6-18m in 20 districts of Peru. Cost was converted to US$/month. Median family consumption of food was valued at $82.6/m. 77.7% of food was purchased.

Young Lives is a longitudinal research project investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty. The study is tracking the development of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, Peru, India (Andhra Pradesh) and Vietnam through qualitative and quantitative research over a 15-year period. Since 2002, the study has been following two cohorts in each study country. The younger cohort consists of 2,000 children per study country aged between 6 and 18 months in 2002. The older cohort consists of 1,000 children per country aged between 7.5 and 8.5 in 2002.