Faltering Growth/Failure to Thrive
What causes Faltering growth?
Faltering growth can occur anytime during childhood, however, it is most common in the first 2-3 years of life. It has been characterised by either organic causes or non-organic causes. In many cases, faltering growth occurs in combination of both organic and non-organic causes. Each case of faltering growth varies greatly, but in essence, it mainly is related to nutritional intake that for some reason is not adequate in meeting the needs of the infant/child. Some causes of faltering growth can include:
- Inadequate nutrient intake such as due to fussiness or other feeding difficulties.
- Inadequate nutrient absorption such as in cystic fibrosis or crohn’s disease
- Impaired metabolism such as in type 1 diabetes
- Increased nutrition excretion such as in IBS, food intolerance or other gastroinstestinal issues
- Increased energy requirements due to increased physical activity.
- Other medical conditions such as reflux and recovery from injuries.
- Feeding issues.
- Psychosocial issues.
- Other e.g. infant sleep difficulty, family factors, behavioural issues
- Food intolerances and allergies such as cow’s milk protein allergy
How can Bites Dietitians help?
As faltering growth can be caused by many different factors, our Dietitians will investigate the major factors contributing to its occurrence! Our dietitians will assess a wide variety of factors some of which could include feeding and mealtime behaviours, types and quantities of foods being consumed, food preferences and family eating patterns. Once the cause/causes have been identified, our dietitians will work closely with you and your child to find strategies to manage the barriers and ensure adequate nutrition for their needs are being met and improvements in growth and development occur. Our dietitians can assess your child’s growth along the way (we have facilities to measure growth from newborns and up!) and make adaptions to any prescribed diet and meal plans that we create with mum, dad or carers based on how your little one progresses.
Our dietitians will attempt to correct any form of undernutrition or deficiencies with personalised meal plans and recommendations for you. They will work closely with you to help identify the best strategy moving forward to best tackle this disease.
What improvement can you expect from a tailored dietary plan?
Depending on the factors influencing your child’s growth, stabilisation and improvements in growth rate may occur within weeks to months of working with our Dietitians.
How will you know it’s working/ you’re improving?
Our Dietitians will measure growth (weight, length/height, head circumference) accurately at periodic intervals with the goal of treatment being improvements in growth rate. (by comparison to the WHO CDC percentiles and other normative data) Each session your Dietitian will ask how the strategies are working and whether additional strategies are necessary to continue increasing growth rate further whilst preserving your child’s healthy relationship with food.
Helpful things to bring/remember before your first appointment
- Three day diet history
- Your child’s “Blue book” containing growth data and milestones from birth if you’re in NSW or equivalent documentation if you’re residing in another state/country
- Any relevant medical history
- Referral from your paediatrician and/or GP if you have one
- Any pathology or test results (including blood results, specific allergy or food intolerance testing)
Want To Know More About Other Conditions We Treat?