title: Biological vulnerability in infants with failure to thrive: the association with birthweight.
abstract: The development of failure to thrive (FTT) is hypothesized to be caused by the interaction between biological and environmental factors. Birthweight is one biological variable thought to play a role in the infant's growth failure. In studies that enrolled infants with FTT who were full-term at birth, the reported birthweights of these infants were significantly less than healthy control infants (M = 2959 g vs. M = 3364 g), t(14) = -4.597, P < 0.000. There is growing evidence that there is a subgroup of full-term newborn infants who actually may have experienced some degree of intrauterine growth retardation but their birthweights remain above the traditional cut-off of 2500 g so that they go unrecognized. The question to consider is whether these infants are as behaviourally vulnerable as full-term infants with classic intrauterine growth retardation. It may be that this unrecognized group is at a higher risk of developing FTT. The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss birthweight as a possible precursor to the development of FTT.
authors.affiliation: RN and College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. steward.20@osu.edu
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Steward
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D002657:Child Development; D005183:Failure to Thrive; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn