Your Child’s Been Diagnosed with Failure to Thrive: What Next?

First thing’s first: we know you may be feeling scared and confused as you process this new diagnosis for your child. These emotions are valid and normal, so we hope you’ll give yourself grace as you navigate this new nutrition journey. We want you to feel empowered to figure out next steps with your healthcare professional, and we also want to extend our helping hand in any way we can. Our customer care team is available to answer questions about your nutrition journey and our shakes and formulas.

Three common causes that can lead to a failure to thrive diagnosis. Failure to thrive, or FTT, affects up to 10% of children in the United States and 80% of children with FTT show symptoms before they reach 19 months. FTT is commonly used to describe a lack of adequate weight gain in pediatric patients. In childhood, FTT is a state of undernutrition due to inadequate caloric intake, inadequate calorie absorption, and/or excessive caloric expenditure (burning more calories than consuming).

It is diagnosed when a child’s weight or growth rate fall below the standardized growth chart based on the child’s age, height, gender, and other data. Its cause can range from food scarcity to the body’s lack of ability to absorb essential nutrients. It is often overlooked or missed. On occasion, FTT may be recognized in a child during medical assessments for an undiagnosed condition or illness that has led to significant weight loss and slowed growth. If that’s the case, it's often observed that young, growing children experience a decrease in normal muscle mass and other important measurements. FTT is important to recognize and manage since it can result in developmental delays and other long-term effects for the developing child.

Here are three causes below that can lead to FTT:

1. Malabsorption:

Malabsorption is a digestive disorder that prevents your body from effectively absorbing nutrients from the food consumed. Malabsorption is a common result of digestive issues and, in severe cases, malabsorption can manifest as frank or severe malnutrition. It doesn't necessarily mean that your child is not consuming the right nutrients, but rather their body is unable to absorb the nutrients effectively.

2. Increased calorie expenditure:

Some health issues ramp up a child’s energy expenditure to the point that calorie intake—even if the child is eating well—doesn’t meet the body’s energy demands. Examples where FTT may be found is for those with congenital heart disease, chronic pulmonary disease, hyperthyroidism, or other health conditions. The result is that the excess calorie burn or expenditure can lead to a diagnosis of FTT.

3. Inadequate calorie intake:

In these cases, kids are struggling to consume enough food to satisfy their body’s needs. Potential causes include troubles swallowing, difficulty finding foods the child can tolerate, GI health issues, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), or even a cleft palate, which can interfere with a child’s ability to eat.

How is it treated?

As you might expect, the treatment plan depends entirely on the child’s specific symptoms and is usually treated by a team that includes healthcare professionals — physicians, RD nutritionists, and other key specialists that can develop a care plan. We urge you to discuss the diagnosis with your healthcare professional in order to establish the best path forward for your child. In many cases with children who qualify as FTT, doctors may include liquid nutrition to help boost nutrient and calorie intake in the nutrition care plan.

The bottom line.

Please remember that this diagnosis is not your fault. Finding adequate nutrition for your little one is not always easy, but your healthcare team can help you find the best next steps to help your child thrive.

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