Founding Editorial — Child Health and Human Development

The period of life called childhood is of worldwide interest, and is nicely illustrated by numerous stories about childrens life around the globe in a recent series of books published by John Wiley & Sons as part of the Open University course on "Childhood"[1,2]. Adolescence and later adulthood are also important parts of the human development that shape us and our future generations. In addition to genetics, the conditions and environment during our first few years of life will have a binding impact on the development taking place years ahead concerning our achievements in life, our accomplishments, and our health.