eMedicine Specialties > Pediatrics: General Medicine > Nutrition
Failure to Thrive: Follow-up
Updated: May 4, 2009
Follow-up
Further Outpatient Care
- Children with failure to thrive (FTT) need continued follow-up care to observe their growth parameters using the appropriate growth charts.
Prognosis
- Clearly, the ultimate physical growth may be slowed in children with failure to thrive (FTT) syndrome (see Mortality/Morbidity). Traditionally, nonorganic causes of failure to thrive have been thought to result in more cognitive deficits than found with organic causes. In addition, whether early intervention or home visits can affect development positively is unclear. In 1995, Black demonstrated that home intervention may reduce developmental delays, mainly cognitive delays in young children.8 In 1999, Raynor demonstrated that, although children who received home visits had less dietary referrals, social services involvement, and hospital admissions, no effect on growth was observed.9
- Failure to thrive remains one of the greatest challenges for the practicing pediatrician. The process of the attempt at identification of the causes can be exhausting and expensive. The list of organic and nonorganic causes of this entity is extensive, and combinations of the 2 types of causes are common in specific children. Failure to thrive can have its roots in prenatal origins or can develop postnatally. Information from a careful extensive history and from a detailed physical examination may give important clues to the underlying diagnoses. Hospitalization and the involvement of a multispecialty team may be helpful in diagnosis.
- Whether failure to thrive results from organic or nonorganic reasons, children with this condition require aggressive calorie supplementation; examples of the sources of such calories are summarized in Tables 2-3 of this article. The cognitive outcome of children who have had failure to thrive is not clear. However, a careful and timely search for the causes of failure to thrive and implementation of aggressive calorie supplementation is important in obtaining the best possible outcome in these children.
Patient Education
- For excellent patient education resources, visit eMedicine's Growth Hormone Deficiency Center. Also, see eMedicine's patient education articles Growth Failure in Children, Growth Hormone Deficiency, Growth Hormone Deficiency in Children, and Growth Hormone Deficiency FAQs.
More on Failure to Thrive |
| Overview: Failure to Thrive |
| Differential Diagnoses & Workup: Failure to Thrive |
| Treatment & Medication: Failure to Thrive |
 Follow-up: Failure to Thrive |
| Multimedia: Failure to Thrive |
| References |
| Further Reading |
| « Previous Page | Next Page » |
References
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Further Reading
- The following are relevant clinical guidelines:
- The following are relevant clinical trials:
- Related eMedicine topics include the following:
Keywords
failure to thrive, FTT, growth failure, failure of growth, malnutrition, delayed growth, growth charts, infant growth, normal growth, growth in infants, normal weight in infants, normal height in infants, head circumference in infants, Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, malnutrition, diarrhea, cerebral palsy, seizure, hepatomegaly, marasmus, maternal eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, psychosocial deprivation, neglect, emotional deprivation syndrome, prematurity, placental insufficiency, alcohol ingestion, hypertension, preeclampsia, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, short stature, Prader-Willi syndrome, craniofacial abnormalities, congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, gastroesophageal reflux, esophagitis, cystic fibrosis, CF, hyperthyroidism, milk protein allergy, Celiac disease, protein-losing enteropathies, Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, renal failure, renal tubular acidosis, hypothyroidism, systemic lupus erythematosus, treatment, diagnosis
