This paper estimates the contemporaneous response of household economic well-being to child
health status and examines gender disparities in the response process, while controlling for
other correlates. The paper uses the 2001 Cameroon household consumption survey and a range
of survey-based regressions to generate results. Child health (weight-given age) correlates
positively and significantly with household economic well-being, surrogated by log of household
total expenditures per adult. This suggests evidence of spill-over effects of child health on
household production. The effect of child health on well-being in households headed by women
is more than that of their male counterparts. This indicates that with better child health, female
heads are likely to exploit the resulting extra-time, budgetary savings and peace of mind at work
to increase household well-being more effectively than their male counterparts. These results
have implications for public interventions that promote child-day-care/pre-nursery school
centres as an important enabler for women to use the extra-time at their disposal to participate
additionally in labour market/training opportunities. Investing in reproductive health, especially
child health, given the right conditions, can engender income growth, reduce poverty and initiate
the process of accumulation of human capabilities.