Intellectual and physical outcome of children undernourished in early life is influenced by later environmental conditions.

Thirty-five schoolchildren who share a common history of early undernutrition and who were reared after recovery by adoptive families (16), in institutional care (eight) or by their biological families (11) were assessed for physical and intellectual outcome. The adopted children had mean normal weight and height for age, but the children from institutions were significantly shorter. Adopted children had mean Full-scale, Verbal and Performance IQs in the normal ranges, with significant differences from the other two groups, mainly for the Verbal subscale. These results emphasize that the growth and development of early-undernourished children are not irreversibly fixed by the acute illness, but are highly sensitive and modifiable by early and stable environmental improvement.