Signs and symptoms
Failure to thrive is most commonly diagnosed before two years of age, when growth rates are highest, though FTT can present among children and adolescents of any age. Caretakers may express concern about poor weight gain or smaller size compared to peers of a similar age. Physicians often identify failure to thrive during routine office visits, when a childs growth parameters such as height and weight are not increasing appropriately on growth curves. Other signs and symptoms may vary widely depending on the etiology of FTT. It is also important to differentiate stunting from wasting, as they can indicate different causes of FTT. "Wasting" refers to a deceleration in stature more than 2 standard deviations from median weight-for-height, whereas "stunting" is a drop of more than 2 standard deviations from the median height-for-age.The characteristic pattern seen with children with inadequate nutritional intake is an initial deceleration in weight gain, followed several weeks to months later by a deceleration in stature, and finally a deceleration in head circumference. Inadequate caloric intake could be caused by lack of access to food, or caretakers may notice picky eating habits, low appetite, or food refusal. FTT caused by malnutrition could also yield physical findings that indicate potential vitamin and mineral deficiencies, such as scaling skin, spoon-shaped nails, cheilosis, or neuropathy. Lack of food intake by a child could also be due to psychosocial factors related to the child or family.
Additionally, retrospective studies done in the United States suggest that males are slightly more likely than females to be admitted to the hospital for failure to thrive. Low-resourced regions
Failure to thrive is more common in developing countries and is mostly driven by malnutrition due to poverty. In an example of the high prevalence of FTT due to malnutrition, in India, about 40% of the population suffers from mild to moderate malnutrition and about 25% of pediatric hospitalizations are due to malnutrition.Malnutrition is a global problem of great scale. Worldwide, problems with receiving adequate nutrition contributes to about 45% of all deaths in children younger than 5 years old. In 2020, global estimates of malnutrition indicated that 149 million children under 5 were stunted and 45 million were estimated to be wasted. In 2014, approximately 462 millions adults were estimated to be underweight. It is important to note that these reports are likely underestimating the true scope of the global burden.Malnutrition can also be classified to acute malnutrition and chronic malnutrition. Acute malnutrition indicates inadequate or insufficient nutrient intake resulting in severe systemic degeneration. Globally, approximately 32.7 million children under 5 years are found to have visible and clinical signs of acute malnutrition. Severe wasting is seen in 14.3 million children within this age group. These disorders are primarily localized to resource-limited regions. In comparison, chronic malnutrition is a condition that develops over time and results in growth inadequacy with subsequent developmental, physical and cognitive delays. Around 144 million children worldwide are chronically malnurished.