Failure to Thrive

You must have noticed, most of the kids grow fast and gain weight within the initial years. However, in some cases kids don’t grow according to the expected standards. When this happens, it's called "failure to thrive." Failure to thrive refers to kids whose current weight is much lower than that of other kids of similar age group.

Children who fail to thrive have very little growth rate as compared to other kids of the same age. They look slimmer, shorter or smaller. Failure to Thrive is self-treatable, if recognized on time. It is very important for all of us to know about its symptoms. Symptoms of failure to thrive include:

• Growth rate of the child slowed or stopped
• Child weight is 20% lower below the ideal weight for their height
• Body weight, height and head circumference do not meet the standard growth rate

This condition, mostly found in infants and toddlers, which is an important time of physical and mental growth. There are many causes of failure to thrive, such as eating problem, illness, hormonal problem, metabolism disorder, low birth rate, etc. It is very important for parents to get it diagnosed from the doctor and get a child back into a healthy growth pattern.

Children who have failure to thrive can be treated at home. In order to reduce this, parents need to take certain serious steps. The best way to prevent this is to eat a balanced diet. A diet, which is full of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and water is considered to be a balanced diet. Other treatment includes primary care from pediatrician and occupational therapy.

Children with extreme failure to thrive might need some dietary supplements, but don’t give these to your child without consulting your doctor.

Hence, with this piece of information, we need to understand that it’s extremely important, now-a-days, to educate parents about this health problem, to ensure child’s well-being. Inclusion of enough nutritious food in your kids' diet, can help in reducing the risk of this disease and help in their normal body growth.

Found this information useful? You can learn more about your child’s good health by joining Shaw Academy’s Child Nutrition program. Check out their LinkedIn profile and read Shaw Academy reviews online.