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Psychosocial Influences in the Etiology, Diagnosis, and Prognosis of Nonorganic Failure to Thrive

  • Chapter
Theory and Research in Behavioral Pediatrics

Abstract

Failure to thrive (FTT) has a long history in pediatric research and practice. In addition, professionals from a variety of professional disciplines who work with maltreated children and children with emotional and developmental problems encounter FTT children in their practices (Drotar, 1988). Initially used to describe infants who were not thriving in institutions (Chapin, 1908) and later in family settings (Patton & Gardner, 1962; Talbot et al., 1947), FTT is a general term that refers to children with severe growth deficiency, defined as weight for age less than the 5th percentile based on national norms (Hammill et al., 1979). Three heterogeneous categories of FTT are recognized: (1) nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFT), in which the child’s growth deficit is primarily influenced by environmental factors; (2) organic failure to thrive (OFT), in which growth is primarily affected by a physical or organic disorder such as malabsorption; and (3) mixed FTT, in which both organic and environmental influences are present (Homer & Ludwig, 1980).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and MetroHealth Medical Center, 44109, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Dennis Drotar & Lynne Sturm

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  1. Dennis Drotar
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Hiram E. Fitzgerald Ph.D. (Professor of Psychology) (Professor of Psychology)

  2. Bradley Hospital and Women and Infants Hospital, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Barry M. Lester Ph.D. (Professor of Child Psychiatry/Human Behavior and Pediatrics) (Professor of Child Psychiatry/Human Behavior and Pediatrics)

  3. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael W. Yogman M.D. (Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics) (Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics)

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Drotar, D., Sturm, L. (1991). Psychosocial Influences in the Etiology, Diagnosis, and Prognosis of Nonorganic Failure to Thrive. In: Fitzgerald, H.E., Lester, B.M., Yogman, M.W. (eds) Theory and Research in Behavioral Pediatrics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3680-2_2

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