Estimates of the poverty impact of the current crisis are becoming numerous and varied. Few are specifically child-focused. Most are based on global estimates of poverty impacts making assumptions regarding GDP growth deceleration and the poverty elasticity of growth. This article reviews these but takes a different approach. The paper seeks to inform the current debates on poverty impacts by focusing on the 1997/8 economic crisis in East Asia, and Indonesia in particular. The paper asks what do we know about the childhood poverty impact of previous economic crises?