In less developed lands millions of babies die from diseases such as kwashiorkor, marasmus, measles, pneumonia and tuberculosis. The book The Competent Infant states regarding a major cause of fatal illnesses: “In most areas of the world malnutrition in early life is directly or indirectly responsible for more deaths among children than all other causes combined.”

Babies that survive these severe forms of malnutrition suffer for the rest of their life. Regarding this, the book The Competent Infant says: “The intellectual attainments of children who have recovered from . . . protein-calorie malnutrition are consistently lower than those of individuals with adequate nutrition during infancy.” Regarding less severe forms of malnutrition, the authors state that these “might be correlated with a decrease in intellectual development.”