This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages without signing in

Failure to thrive

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Failure to thrive is failure to maintain a normal rate of growth such that the individual's growth rate falls significantly behind that of the normal population.

This is a common discovery in paediatrics, and the occasionally serious underlying aetiology reflects the importance of regular, accurate measurements of children's growth. These are then plotted on growth charts on which are drawn the mean and range of parameters such as head circumference, height and weight.

Failure to thrive is best described as failure to advance along a centile on a growth chart. Thus, a child whose weight is on the 3rd centile, and always has been, is not failing to thrive, whereas the child who is now on the 3rd centile, after having been on the 50th, is failing to thrive.


Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.