Incorporating Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development in Preservice and In-service Training

Early childhood development refers to a child’s development from conception till eight years of life, the first 1000 days being the most important. The WHO guideline on nurturing early childhood development encourages attention to good health, nutrition, opportunities for early childhood learning, responsive care, and security. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) released its consensus statement on early childhood development in 2020 which highlighted the role of pediatricians to lead the community in general and parents in particular to understand how to nurture early childhood development. This article looks at the current undergraduate and postgraduate medical curricula in India to analyze how they address early childhood development. Based on identified lacuna, we have proposed suggestions for change in the current curriculum to ensure that the future doctors in general and pediatricians in particular are prepared for their intended role to promote nurturing care for early childhood development.