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An estimated 42.8 million (6.6% prevalence) infants and children under 5 years of age experienced wasting at any given time in 2024 and hundreds of thousands more infants and children are estimated to suffer from nutritional oedema. 1 2 Wasting and nutritional oedema are complex child health challenges that need to be addressed with nutritional and medical management for children to survive, recover and thrive. It is unlikely that the global wasting target (prevalence <5% by 2025) will be achieved.2–4 At the 78th World Health Assembly which took place in 2025, member states adopted a Resolution that involves extending the deadline for the Global Nutrition Targets to 2030.4 Efforts to address wasting and nutritional oedema, and their consequences, have been particularly challenging in recent years due to the current polycrisis of global hunger, conflict and widespread climate-related shocks—and now, major reductions in funding for nutrition which are expected to have significant consequences for managing severe wasting and nutritional oedema especially, which will inevitably increase child deaths.5–8