This paper engages in the debate on the effects of children’s health on their education in later life stages in low- and middle-income countries. Using three rounds from the rich panel data of the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, it endorses a multidimensional approach to health (and poverty in general). In detail, the paper has a fourfold objective: (1) to explore whether the positive relationship between children’s height and cognitive skills at pre-school and primary-school age found in previous studies holds in our sample of countries, too; (2) to assess whether additional health and nutrition indicators, rarely available or used in the existing literature, are significantly associated with later cognitive achievements; (3) to examine whether the whole contribution of children’s multidimensional health to mid-term cognitive attainments can be adequately summarised by a composite deprivation index; (4) to investigate a few possible channels through which early childhood health may affect cognitive skills.