title: Behavioral disturbances among failure-to-thrive children.
abstract: The eating, sleeping, elimination, autoerotic and self-harming behavior of 19 preschool failure-to-thrive children was studied. Their behavior was compared to a group of 19 children growing normally for their chronological age. Information was obtained by repeated home visits by public health nurses. The growth-retarded children had more feeding difficulties as infants, had skimpier, less regular meals, and had poorer response to food when rated on a five-point scale. Their daily caloric intake was lower. There was no substantial differences between groups for sleeping, elimination, autoerotic, and self-harming behaviors when each area was separately analyzed. However, when all the disturbances were summed, there was clear evidence that the failure-to-thrive children had a noticeably greater number of abnormalities than the control group.
mesh_terms: D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000150:complications; D012653:Self Stimulation; D012890:Sleep; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications