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Dear All

 

I would like some opinions on a "failure to thrive" child. This is about a girl, two years eight months and looks like about 18 months,whose mum does seem to try but I feel may not have been getting the help that she might need or possibly her not giving the right information. We are quite concerned about this and want to advance things in the right direction.

 

Anyone been in this situation beforehand please? or any good websites to help?

thanks

dramapixie :o

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"Failure to thrive", may not necessarily be a nutritional problem due to diet etc, and could be caused by a medical condition, would suggest a visit to GP if this has not already been done to exclude any medical reason for this to be happening.. there are lots of conditions with minimal or no other symptoms which should be excluded..

 

otherwise has she been seeing HV, (not that many seem to these days) if not would suggest that as another port of call for help as support may be needed at home and would be more in a position to advise.

 

forgot to add.. is there a local children's centre that may be able to help.. I know ours are very good in offering help to settings and parents when needed.

Edited by Inge
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You could advise mum to take little girl to get weighed at clinic, which is run by the Health Visitor. Health Visitor may already be aware of a problem but if not this may flag one.

mrsW x

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Dear All

 

I would like some opinions on a "failure to thrive" child. This is about a girl, two years eight months and looks like about 18 months,whose mum does seem to try but I feel may not have been getting the help that she might need or possibly her not giving the right information. We are quite concerned about this and want to advance things in the right direction.

 

Anyone been in this situation beforehand please? or any good websites to help?

thanks

dramapixie :o

 

I had a son who could have been placed in this category....when he was born he was a good weight but shortly after birth having had him home for several weeks we discovered he had a major heart condition which required immediate sugery or he would die. The treatement for children with heart disease is in fact to starve them (heart failure in children causes body to flood with water so the try to reduce the amount of water they take in...as babies drink milk this means restricting their milk....to compensate for loss of calories they add a glucose substitute to the milk...this makes the milk more thick and less easy to suck as the babies are struggling to breathe they find it hard to feed.....catch 22). At a year old my son was still not on the bottom level of the centile charts having started at 90th centile). However he is fit and well and now a teenager (although he still looks like a stick insect and weighs about 8 and a half stone even though he is now over six foot tall).

 

As professionals it is important we recognise that not all children who fail to thrive are doing so because of neglect etc. There can be many undiagnosed issues such as pituitary gland, thyroid, diabetic, heart, lung issues which may or may not have been identified. Parents who have children with long term chronic issues sometimes do not want to share information with others which they themselves are stuggling hard to come to terms with. Of course there will be cases where neglect, ignorance etc are factors in failure to thrive but the health visitor is much better placed to be in full posession of the medical facts than a setting.

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Dear All

 

I would like some opinions on a "failure to thrive" child. This is about a girl, two years eight months and looks like about 18 months,whose mum does seem to try but I feel may not have been getting the help that she might need or possibly her not giving the right information. We are quite concerned about this and want to advance things in the right direction.

 

Anyone been in this situation beforehand please? or any good websites to help?

thanks

dramapixie :o

Hi dramapixie

Who has applied the 'failure to thrive' label?

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Dear All

Thanks for the information and advise so far. From what I know she has been small since day one and nutrition has been a big issue. There has been no mention on registration forms or information with the keyworker to indicate serious medical concerns. Ethically we have to tread carefully. We have never mentioned "failure to thrive" to mum and I am using the phrase so that I gain opinions to have in my understanding. Over the last couple of months we have gained the trust of mum. She was very proud in telling me that the Christmas period had brought about better eating habits.

She has expressed some assistance from us now but I also realise that HV is important and also that the history of this child needs to all come together in order for us to support the girl's well-being and development.

 

I find this a very interesting topic. Thank you enuffsenuf for your own experience. I very much appreciate it.

 

dramapixie

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Dear All

Thanks for the information and advise so far. From what I know she has been small since day one and nutrition has been a big issue. There has been no mention on registration forms or information with the keyworker to indicate serious medical concerns. Ethically we have to tread carefully. We have never mentioned "failure to thrive" to mum and I am using the phrase so that I gain opinions to have in my understanding. Over the last couple of months we have gained the trust of mum. She was very proud in telling me that the Christmas period had brought about better eating habits.

She has expressed some assistance from us now but I also realise that HV is important and also that the history of this child needs to all come together in order for us to support the girl's well-being and development.

 

I find this a very interesting topic. Thank you enuffsenuf for your own experience. I very much appreciate it.

 

dramapixie

Ah - I see........my youngest grandaughter was labelled as 'failure to thrive' - this due to her medical condition......think I'm a wee bit 'over sensitive' about the term.....

 

Would be hard to imagine that this little one has not been seen by anyone 'medical' xD

 

As you say it's very interesting and I wish you luck with your quest to get some help :o

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