Nutrition: Foundations for Life

Older Infants
Around 6-9 months of age, there is a natural growth deceleration.  This correlates with the introduction of solid food and gradual decrease in the total amount of formula or breast milk ingestion.  Deceleration is most noticeable when weight percentiles have exceeded height percentiles.  These children may be following normal growth variance and not failing to thrive.

This deceleration may be more pronounced in three groups:

·          Babies who were large for gestational age

·          Breastfed babies

·          Babies whose adult predicted height is below the 50% percentile.

Children who have poor weight gain secondary to inadequate nutrition intake will typically begin to cross percentiles in weight before height.  Malnutrition tends to “spare the brain” as much as possible so that large decrements in percentile for head circumference are unusual and found only in cases of prolonged or severe malnutrition.

Beyond the newborn period, into infancy, several other disease processes may manifest as failure to thrive.

·          After the introduction of solid foods, malabsorption may continue to play a role  (e.g. celiac disease)

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