children s health issues
Failure to Thrive in Children
Diagnosis of Failure to Thrive in Children
Monitoring of weight and height Questions about feeding and medical, social, and family history Laboratory tests if needed Doctors consider a diagnosis of failure to thrive when a child's weight or weight gain is well below what it should be when compared with past measurements or standard height-weight charts (see Physical Growth of Infants and Children ). If failure to thrive affects an infant's weight severely enough, height and head (brain) growth rates are also affected. To determine why a child may be failing to thrive, doctors ask parents specific questions about Feeding Bowel habits The social, emotional, and financial stability of the family, which might affect the child's access to food Illnesses that the child has had or that run in the family The doctor examines the child, looking for signs of conditions that could explain the child's poor weight gain. The doctor makes decisions about doing blood, stool, and urine tests and x-rays based on this evaluation. More extensive testing is done if the doctor suspects an underlying disorder. 