Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Primeros Pasos

IDB

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Early Education
    • Family and Children
    • Maternity
    • Measurement and Indicator
    • Nutrition and Lactation
    • Policies and Programs
    • Seminars and Courses
  • Authors
  • English
    • Spanish
    • Portuguese

Extreme Heat and Its Impact on Early Child Development: How Can We Protect Young Children?

February 27, 2024 por Florencia Lopez Boo - Giuliana Daga - Alexandre Bagolle - María Soledad Bos - Mariana Alfonso Leave a Comment


Climate change affects children’s development in different ways and extreme heat is a crucial factor that must be kept in mind. Last year – 2023 – was estimated to be the hottest year on record, ever since temperatures began to be recorded.  Heat waves are occurring with greater frequency and lasting for longer periods of time. We are experiencing much higher temperatures than 100 years ago. While the impacts of climate change on health and the risks to the elderly and people with chronic diseases have been more widely studied, the impact on offspring’s health and development during a mother’s pregnancy and in early childhood have traditionally received much less attention. A recent report from the Center on the Developing Child of Harvard University shows the effects on different aspects of development and possible strategies to mitigate these effects. Below we summarize the main findings.

Pregnant Women and Children Are Particularly Vulnerable to Extreme Heat

Exposure to high temperatures causes the human body to activate thermoregulatory mechanisms in order to maintain internal body temperature within safe limits. But when situations of extreme thermal stress are sustained over prolonged periods, organ dysfunction can occur, such as the rupture of protective proteins and increased heart rate, which can affect other biological systems, such as the brain, intestines, and heart.

Pregnant women face even higher risks when exposed to extreme heat. It can reduce the capacity for blood to flow through the placenta, cause inflammation in the immunological system, and increase the risk of dehydration. These mechanisms increase the probability of stillbirths as well as premature and lower birth weight babies, which in turn can impact the infant’s development and quality of life. For example, the effects of extreme heat can induce cognitive impairment, and chronic health problems, such as diabetes.

Children respond differently to extreme heat. Because their bodies are smaller, their temperature rises more quickly and, in extreme events, they have less capacity to release heat via sweating. In addition, they cannot seek out cooler conditions or get water by themselves; they depend entirely on the help they receive from their caregivers. This extra degree of vulnerability can generate overheating, which can quickly lead to the breakdown of muscle tissue, renal insufficiency, convulsions, comatose states, or even death.

Additionally, according to the report, extreme heat can cause long-term interruptions in early childhood development in three ways:

  1. Learning loss during primary school years: Heat is associated with slower reaction times, reduced concentration ability, and slower cognitive function. Multiple studies have shown that when the temperature in the classroom rises, students’ performance drops.
  • Quality of sleep: A research study on a six-day extreme heat wave in the United Kingdom showed that during the heat wave, children took longer to fall asleep, slept fewer hours, woke up more often, and had a higher number of visits from the parents. Getting enough quality sleep is essential for satisfactory development. In fact, insufficient sleep has been associated with child obesity, disrupted language development, and reduced problem-solving capacity.
  • Mental and behavioral health: In response to extreme heat, children’s brains activate their stress response system. Excessive activation of the stress response system at this sensitive stage can disrupt the development of emotional regulation circuits, crucial for the individual’s well-being, social coexistence, and later, successful incorporation into the labor market.

Existing inequalities between higher-income and lower-income populations aggravate the impact of heat waves on early childhood development. Differences in living conditions for children in poorer families (housing conditions, availability of cooling mechanisms, amount of available green space, etc.) amplify the effects of extreme heat for these children. All these individual factors grow worse when combined with the systemic factors affected by extreme heat shocks (air pollution, shortages of drinking water, food shortages, etc.).

Strategies to Mitigate the Effects of Extreme Heat on Childhood Development

Efforts to combat the main causes of climate change (generation of energy based on fossil fuel, deforestation, etc.) will help mitigate the increase in extreme temperatures, and consequently, their effects on child health and well-being. But there are also adaptive strategies that countries and cities can implement. The report from the Center on the Developing Child recommends:

  • Ensure cooling options (air conditioning, air evaporation, heat sinks) in daycare and preschool centers where children spend much of their time, with clean, accessible, and reliable energy sources.
  • Adapt social infrastructure and urban planning so that building materials, paving and vegetation levels help lower temperatures and provide shaded areas.
  • Implement community plans involving local governments, health systems, and other relevant actors and agencies to map and protect those at greatest risk.

Such efforts require a commitment from us all. It is important to ensure that parenting programs for families and care programs in centers incorporate good practices for regulating children’s temperature. This can be accomplished, for example, by suggesting techniques to keep babies hydrated and cool (use light clothing and bath frequently), monitoring to detect overheating, and conditioning of sleeping places, etc.

Did you know that extreme heat can affect not only children’s health but also other areas of their development such as learning, behavior and sleep quality? What ideas can you come up with to help protect our youngest from extreme heat?


Filed Under: Policies and Programs Tagged With: child development, climate change, early childhood, Early Childhood Development, ECD, extreme eat, heat wave, IDB, Inter American Development Bank

Florencia Lopez Boo

Florencia Lopez Boo is a Director, Global TIES; Economics and Applied Psychology at NYU. Prior to joining NYU, she was a Lead Economist at the Social Protection and Health Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she led the Early Childhood Development (ECD) agenda, the IDB ECD Innovation Fund, the knowledge agenda of her unit, and an initiative on behavioral economics and social policies. She was a professor at the University of Louvain and worked at the World Bank and UNIDO. She has a PhD in Economics from Oxford University (Clarendon-Oxford University Press award). She is also a Young Lives Research Associate at the University of Oxford and the Institute for Labor Studies (IZA) in Bonn. Twitter: @florlopezboo

Giuliana Daga

Giuliana Daga works as a consultant specializing in impact evaluation and economic analysis of social and health policies. She previously worked in the Social Protection and Health Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she focused on projects related to early childhood development, behavioral economics, and poverty reduction. She has collaborated on research and impact evaluations on human capital at the University of California, Berkeley, the IRC, and Georgetown University. She has also worked as a professor at the Torcuato Di Tella University and as a consultant for the World Bank and the government of Argentina. Giuliana holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science and a master's degree in Applied Economics from Torcuato Di Tella University, as well as a master's degree in International Development Policy from Georgetown University. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford, where she specializes in health economics and financing for the resilience of health systems.

Alexandre Bagolle

Alexandre Bagolle es Especialista en la División de Protección Social y Mercados Laborales del BID. Brinda apoyo técnico para el fortalecimiento de los sistemas de protección social y de salud en los países de Latinoamérica y el Caribe, con especial énfasis en su transformación digital y resiliencia al cambio climático. Ha trabajado durante 11 años en varios paises de la región en la preparación, supervisión y evaluación de programas de desarrollo en distintos ámbitos del sector social como empleo, desarrollo de habilidades, salud y protección social. Alexandre cuenta con una maestría en Gobierno y Políticas Públicas de la Universidad de Sciences Po en Francia.

María Soledad Bos

María Soledad Bos works in the Education Division of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC as a Lead Education Specialist. In this role, she regularly participates in the preparation and execution of lending operations in the education sector throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, develops sector strategies and conducts research on learning and equity in education. More recently, Soledad is coordinating the Green Social Agenda, which seeks to integrate social investments and policies with the climate change agenda. Soledad holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in Economics from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina.

Mariana Alfonso

Mariana Alfonso is a sector lead specialist in the Climate Change and Sustainability Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she acts as a focal point to mainstream climate change mitigation and adaptation into the Social Sector’s operational and analytical program. She is currently working on issues of just transition, green jobs, climate shock-responsive social protection programs, among others. She joined the IDB in 2006 and has held positions in the Research Department, Education Division and Vice-Presidency for Sectors and Knowledge. Mariana holds a PhD in Economics and Education from Columbia University (USA) and a BA in Economics from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina).

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Early Childhood Development

The first years of life are essential to establish the future foundation of a person´s productivity and wellbeing. In this blog, experts from the IDB and thought leaders in the topic, share information and international experiences related to early childhood development. Join us to talk about initiatives implemented in your country in this area

Similar Posts

  • The Challenge of Integrating Early Childhood Services with Caribbean Health Systems
  • When Less Cash Benefits Children More
  • How Nudges can Help Improve Adult-Child Interactions
  • How to Apply Behavioral Economics to Early Childhood? Some Experiences from the Region  
  • The Consequences for Human Capital of Closing and Reopening Early Childhood Centers

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    X
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT