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Failure to thrive is something that can happen to a baby anywhere from very shortly after birth up until 12 months of age or even older. What it means depends on the age of your baby and that determines what treatment will be started.
Failure to thrive means just what it sounds like. It means that your baby is not getting enough to eat for some reason and it is failing to grow at the rate medical charts insist they abide by. Though growth charts are often guidelines for formula-fed babies, a breast-fed baby can be diagnosed as failure to thrive according to the chart as well.
If your baby is very small, it is especially vital that failure to thrive be diagnosed early on. Babies grow the most in their first six months of life and it is then that their brain is undergoing crucial development essential for the remainder of their life. If they are not growing adequately to thrive their brain could be the organ most affected.
A failure to thrive baby usually stops growing and gaining weight or gains very minimal amounts of weight. If your baby is fed infant formula, your child care provider will likely want to revisit the amounts you are feeding and the type of formula. Adjustments may be made with the formula and eliminate the failure to thrive problem.
For a breastfed baby, the plan can be more difficult and because breastfeeding is often under fire from the health care field, you may be pressured into giving formula. Because breastmilk amounts are difficult to verify, a physician may think that giving formula will solve the problem. If you are certain of how often your baby's diapers need changing and how often you nurse, you can confidently stand your ground. Other issues may contribute to failure to thrive unrelated to feeding methods.
Some babies can develop failure to thrive because they have an underlying medical problem. A feeding difficulty may go undiagnosed and the mother may have no idea it even exists. Most likely these would be related to insufficient time nursing or drinking from a bottle due to a medical condition in the mouth. Intestinal disorders could also lead to failure to thrive if the baby is not digesting the milk properly.
Failure to thrive could also develop in multiples like twins or triplets. Just because they are more difficult to care for and feed they can have growth problems that other babies might not have. A premature baby is often more likely to have failure to thrive as well because of the difficult start they had in the world.
Sometimes respiratory illnesses, especially in very young babies, can cause failure to thrive. Their difficulty in breathing can reduce their feedings and thus interfere with their growth patterns.
A failure to thrive baby often ends up in the hospital to determine the problem since growing is so essential to the future health of the child and no one wants to take any risks.
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