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Children investigated for failure to thrive: where are they now?
Insights
Failure to thrive (FTT) is common in children. Most children with FTT showed improved weight centiles over time, even without a specific diagnosis, indicating positive growth trajectories.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Growth and Development
- Clinical Medicine
Background:
- Failure to thrive (FTT) is a frequent reason for pediatric clinic referrals.
- Extensive investigations, including sweat tests for cystic fibrosis, are sometimes used for FTT.
- Longitudinal growth data for FTT patients is crucial for understanding outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare initial weight centiles of children with FTT to their school-entry weight centiles.
- To assess growth improvement in children with FTT over several years.
- To determine if diagnosis impacts long-term weight trajectory in FTT.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of weight centile data.
- Comparison of initial presentation data with school-entry medical data.
- Inclusion of children who underwent sweat testing.
Main Results:
- Most children demonstrated an improvement in weight centile over time.
- Weight centile improvement was observed irrespective of a definitive diagnosis.
- The study highlights a generally positive growth trend in children initially presenting with FTT.
Conclusions:
- Children with failure to thrive often show significant improvement in weight centiles by school age.
- Diagnosis of a specific condition is not always necessary for positive growth catch-up.
- Monitoring growth trajectories is essential for managing pediatric failure to thrive.
Abstract:
Failure to thrive remains a common problem accounting for a large number of referrals to paediatric clinics. Some children with failure to thrive undergo extensive investigations including a sweat test to exclude cystic fibrosis. Selecting a group of children who had a sweat test, we chose to compare weight centile data recorded at initial presentation with data collected at routine school-entry medical several years later. It was encouraging to see that most children improved their weight centile with time, regardless of whether a diagnosis had been reached.
