Some children will not gain normal weight during development and those children are referred to failure to thrive. Their developmental rate and weight gain will be significantly lower than that of healthy children.
Failure to thrive in infants is marked by inadequate weight gain and retarded development in infants below 2 years of age. Children belonging to this group will not gain normal weight range and will not attain expected growth rate as they grow. It is quite common for many children to be on low weight due to causes like below average birth-weight, social factors and psychological factors.
It is not a medical disorder and FTT is only indicative of under-weight children.
Causes :
Several factors contribute to FTT in infants. It is a common phenomenon in children with Down’s syndrome and Turner’s syndrome. Children born with inherited organ problems can have difficulty in gaining weight. This can occur due to insufficient production of thyroid hormone or growth hormone in children.
Some children with severe nervous disorders may have feeding problems which can contribute for inadequate weight. FTT can be caused due to blood related disorders, gastrointestinal diseases like esophageal reflux.
Insufficient intake of calorie can be the cause for poor weight-gain due to poverty, parental neglect, poor diet and improper diet. It can be due to misbehavior of the child during feeding sessions or due to food phobia.
Anatomic factors that are responsible for poor weight-gain are congenital (inherited by birth) problems, esophageal trauma, cleft palate, GI infection, GE reflux and abdominal pain.
Some children may not utilize the calorie intake due to mal-absorption caused by liver disease, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and diarrhea.