Failure to thrive in the perinatal period

Effects of intrauterine growth retardation in premature infants on early childhood growth

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate in preterm infants the role of intrauterine growth retardation and infant body proportionality on subsequent childhood growth.

METHODS

Preterm infants (818) prospectively enrolled in the Infant Health and Development Program were studied from birth to 36 months of corrected age. Weights and lengths were recorded at eight intervals. Growth parameters were compared in preterm infants with differing body symmetry at birth, defined by length-for-age and weight-for-age. Infants with both low length-for-age and low weight-for-age at birth were categorized as symmetrically growth retarded, and infants with normal length-for-age and low weight-for-age were categorized as asymmetrically growth retarded.

RESULTS

Infants born with low length-for-age demonstrated increased growth velocity until 8 months of corrected age (p <0.001). However, infants born with low weight-for-age demonstrated decreased weight-gain velocity compared with preterm infants with appropriate weight for gestational age (AGA) until 40 weeks of corrected age (p <0.001). Heights and weights of infants with either symmetric or asymmetric intrauterine growth retardation remained significantly retarded compared with AGA preterm patients and the National Child Health Survey (NCHS) reference population (p <0.001). Infants born short but with normal weight did not significantly differ from AGA preterm infants in either weight or length at 36 months of corrected age. Preterm infants with both symmetric and asymmetric growth retardation demonstrated limited catch-up growth in weight until age 4 months and then paralleled the AGA preterm patients and the NCHS reference population. Very low birth weight (< or = 1250 gm), gestational age, and a broad-based day-care intervention did not influence growth outcome after control for the presence of intrauterine growth retardation.

CONCLUSIONS

Preterm infants with both symmetric and asymmetric intrauterine growth retardation demonstrate limited catch-up growth. Intrauterine growth deficits persist into early childhood.

Intrauterine growth retardation and familial short stature

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is an important cause of small stature in children presenting to paediatric endocrinologists. IUGR has to be differentiated from familial ('constitutional') short stature, where the growth deficit is genetically determined and/or induced by smallness of the mother (maternal constraint). Intrinsic fetal anomalies such as chromosomal abnormalities, primary growth failure syndromes, congenital infections and congenital anomalies are of equal importance with maternal disorders, in particular chronic use of alcohol, tobacco and narcotics, and pregnancy complications like hypertension and pre-eclampsia, in causing fetal growth retardation. The relative importance of placental abnormalities and environmental factors (with the exception of malnutrition) appears to be small. Some catch-up growth of children with IUGR has been observed in about 70% of all cases during the first year of life. Many IUGR children show major or minor birth defects which may be predisposing factors or may also coexist because of common underlying factors producing both small stature and structural anomalies. Since in most children with IUGR adult heights to be expected are below the population range, growth hormone treatment has been tried for many years, but the data available from the literature are not encouraging to date and need to be re-evaluated in controlled long-term trials.

Physiologic sequelae of prematurity: the nurse practitioner's role. Part V. Feeding difficulties and growth failure (pathophysiology, cause, and data collection

Feeding difficulties and growth failure are common problems in the premature infant who has been in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This article, the fifth in a series, presents growth parameters and growth expectations for the premature infant. It also discusses the pathophysiology, causes, and assessments necessary to determine growth failure in these infants.

Failure to thrive

Malnutrition is the primary biologic insult in most cases of failure to thrive. A transactional model of infant development provides a framework for understanding the psychosocial context in which such malnutrition occurs. Each child who fails to thrive should receive a multidisciplinary evaluation to address the diagnostic and therapeutic implications of nutritional, medical, psychosocial, and developmental factors contributing to growth failure.