Ahead of a summit on health visiting next month, Cheryll Adams, of the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors' Association, said staffing levels must be addressed.
She also called for primary care trusts to have ring-fenced health visitor budgets to ensure money is spent on the area.
"We know mental health can be influenced by what happens in the first three years," Adams said.
"The World Health Organisation has accepted in terms of public health there is a mental health time bomb.
"There is a lack of acknowledgment of how important early work is."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said government is working with strategic health authorities and other stakeholders to develop a health visitor action programme.
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