Head size, motor function and IQ may be affected also. Primary skeletal growth deficiency has its onset during the pregnancy and growth is slow in height and weight from early life to adulthood. Secondary growth deficiency problems are divided into before birth and after birth types. The before birth failure to thrive may be due to maternal malnutrition which causes smaller infants. After delivery, many factors will affect our children's size - malnutritional due to inadequate calories, poor feeding techniques, improper mixing of formula is still seen frequently, even in some of the best families.
Emotional deprivation causes failure to thrive.
The deprived social and emotional setting of the child may not be apparent from the parental history. This may be seen in early infancy or as late as 2-3 years old. Their developmental delay may be proportionate to their size, not their age. Children with mental retardation often have failure to thrive, which is nutritional in origin. GI problems such as reflux, malabsorption, parasites, milk intolerance and diarrhea will cause significant failure to thrive.