Routine laboratory testing identifies a cause of FTT in less than 1 percent of children and is not generally recommended. The long-term effects of failure to thrive on cognitive development and future academic performance are unclear.Ī combination of anthropometric criteria, rather than one criterion, should be used to more accurately identify children at risk of FTT.īased on disease-oriented evidence and expert opinionĪn accurate, detailed account of a child's eating habits, caloric intake, and parent-child interactions should be obtained as a key step in determining the etiology of FTT.īased on disease-oriented evidence and usual practice/expert opinion A multidisciplinary approach to treatment, including home nursing visits and nutritional counseling, has been shown to improve weight gain, parent-child relationships, and cognitive development. Reasons to hospitalize a child for further evaluation include failure of outpatient management, suspicion of abuse or neglect, or severe psychosocial impairment of the caregiver. Routine laboratory testing rarely identifies a cause and is not generally recommended. The most important part of the outpatient evaluation is obtaining an accurate account of a child's eating habits and caloric intake. Most cases of failure to thrive involve inadequate caloric intake caused by behavioral or psychosocial issues. Although failure to thrive is often defined as a weight for age that falls below the 5th percentile on multiple occasions or weight deceleration that crosses two major percentile lines on a growth chart, use of any single indicator has a low positive predictive value. In the United States, it is seen in 5 to 10 percent of children in primary care settings. Failure to thrive in childhood is a state of undernutrition due to inadequate caloric intake, inadequate caloric absorption, or excessive caloric expenditure.
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