Nutrition has far-reaching impacts on children’s overall health and development. Conditions, exposures and behaviors in this critical window of development may set the stage for later risk of neurodevelopmental problems and chronic diseases, including obesity and diabetes. This presentation will describe how maternal diet and stress interact from conception to early childhood and play an important role in early child growth and development. Results of a UC Irvine project on the barriers and stressors regarding nutrition in the first 1000 days of life will be shared. Several needs were identified through the survey findings to better support optimal health, growth and development including improved access to nutritious food and educational resources for low-income families, improved cultural appropriateness of nutrition education, messaging around key micronutrients for fetal and early child development, and further professional development opportunities on early life nutrition. Participants will discuss their perceptions of key barriers and ways to improve nutrition equity in an interactive portion of the session.