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The longitudinal study,‘Growing Up in New Zealand’, was explicitly established to provide contemporary, population-relevant evidence about the multidisciplinary determinants of pathways towards health and development for children born in the 21st century New Zealand. Improvements in child health have been slower in New Zealand in recent decades relative to other developed countries, and in 2009 New Zealand was ranked 29th out of 30 OECD countries. 1 Examples of child health indicators where New Zealand performs relatively poorly include infant mortality rates, immunization coverage, accidents and injuries in under 5-year-olds, rates of child maltreatment and hospital admission rates for a spectrum of communicable diseases including pertussis, pneumonia and rheumatic fever. 1–4 Compared with other OECD countries, New Zealand also has a poor record with respect to the proportion of children …