Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Failure to Thrive

Definition

Failure to thrive (FTT) is used to describe a delay in a child's growth or development. It is usually applied to infants and children up to two years of age who do not gain or maintain weight as they should. Failure to thrive is not a specific disease, but rather a cluster of symptoms which may come from a variety of sources.

Description

Shortly after birth most infants loose some weight. After that expected loss, babies should gain weight at a steady and predictable rate. When a baby does not gain weigh as expected, or continues to loose weight, it is not thriving. Failure to thrive may be due to one or more conditions.

Organic failure to thrive (OFTT) implies that the organs involved with digestion and absorption of food are malformed or incomplete so the baby cannot digest its food. Non-organic failure to thrive (NOFTT) is the most common cause of FTT and implies the baby is not receiving...