Early childhood (7)
I believe the answer is:
infancy
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">early childhood</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(synonyms)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for infancy that I've seen before include "youth" , "First stage of life" , "Early stages of" , "beginning" , "minority" .)