Some 32,000 children in Northern Ireland are living in severe poverty, a seminar was told yesterday.
Research carried out for the charity, Save the Children, in conjunction with Queen's University discovered that 8 per cent of all children are "severely poor" and do not have enough food or the right kind of food.
The study was carried out on the charity's behalf by research consultants Dr Eithne McLaughlin and Ms Marina Monteith.
Their findings will be published in full later this year, but they were able to report that the children did not have a well-nourished or warm, safe or healthy environment.
They further reported that their families were affected by protracted anxiety caused by debt.
Ms Monteith said: "One in five does not have fresh fruit and vegetables and one in seven does not have three meals a day. These children do not have enough clothing or a warm, safe and healthy environment - 40 per cent live in households where the gas, electricity or phone have been cut off."
The children also lack the things others take for granted, such as school trips, holidays, going to the cinema and participating in sports and social activities, she said.
The research also reveals that 70 per cent of children living in severe poverty are most likely to live in a household where no one works. More than 50 per cent live with a lone parent.
Some 27 per cent have parents with health problems or disabilities and 14 per cent of the children are disabled themselves.
Nearly a quarter of poor children live in large families with more than four children, but more than a quarter live in households where the parents believe that they live in poverty either often or most of the time.
Ms Sheri Chamberlain, a Save the Children programme director, said it was "extremely worrying" that so many children were deprived of proper food, clothing and housing.