Delayed growth involves poor or abnormally slow gain in weight, height, or both, in a child younger than 5 years old.
Alternative Names:
Growth - slow (child 0 - 5 years); Weight gain - slow (child 0 - 5 years); Slow rate of growth; Retarded growth and development
Considerations:
Delayed or slower-than-expected growth can be caused by many conditions, most of which can be corrected if the problem is recognized and the remedy is timely. Failure to thrive may be accompanied by withdrawn personality and slow mental, physical, and emotional development. Genetic diseases and chronic illness are less common causes of failure to thrive in the U.S. Social and educational causes for failure to thrive are more common.
Often, problems with infants can be prevented or modified with parental education. Expectant parents should arrange for parenting classes. Also, a child should be taken in to see the health care provider on a regular basis for well-baby checkups.
The term failure to thrive means only that an infant or young child is not growing and developing as expected. Failure to thrive is often divided into 2 main categories: psychosocial and organic.
Psychosocial causes include problems relating to poverty, educational level, malnourishment, and environmental factors (such as abuse or neglect, maternal depression, or a parent's substance abuse). Psychosocial causes for failure to thrive include:
Parental inexperience or lack of appropriate education, possibly resulting in:
Inadequate nourishment from a feeding schedule that is rigid or allows little sucking time (in infants less than 1 year being breast-fed)
Too much water added to powdered formula, or water added to ready-to-feed formula (in infants less than 1 year being bottle-fed)
Poverty and malnutrition
Neglect or abuse
Mental illness in a parent
Substance abuse by a parent
Organic failure to thrive includes any disease state such as chronic illness, and genetic, metabolic and hormone disorders. Organic causes for failure to thrive include:
Genetic causes with no underlying disorder
Chronic disease such as sickle cell disease, kidney failure, or chronic infection such as tuberculosis
Review Date: 2/9/2005
Reviewed By: Thomas A. Owens, M.D., Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.
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