To ask what does failure to strive mean in newborn?

[makingbeatifulgardens]

We have just been going through my late mother's home and have come across some maternity and hospital notes for me as a baby. (Late 70s)
It says "Failure to thrive" in my birth notes.

Can anyone shed any light on what this could mean please?

Its means you werent gaining weight at the expected rate.

It can be caused by a variety of issues, neglect, or difficulty feeding, or reflux, illness or disorders.

Not putting on weight I'd imagine. Not hitting whatever the expected milestones were at the time. Nothing really.

It usually means a baby isn’t gaining weight as it should. I think the baby has to drop two centiles to be considered ‘failure to thrive’. My dd has this on her notes and was later diagnosed with milk, soy and Egg allergies.

I think it usually meant that they weren’t putting enough weight on - that is, past the very early stage when they usually lose a bit anyway.

Most likely to be poor weight gain in the early days. Do you know if you had any feeding issues as a baby? It’s not a signal that you were poorly cared for.

Im sorry for the loss of your Mum.

Yeah, not putting weight on as expected

Not gaining weight at the expected rate or meeting milestones. Could be due to a variety of factors

Well as you're still alive it means nothing really!

Thank you and no feeding issues that was I ever told of.

It is usually just temporary where the baby isn't gaining as much as expected and the health visitor will check in more regularly until they are back on track (eg weekly weigh ins instead of monthly). Nothing to worry about at this late stage.

Nowadays you hear of 'faltering growth' which is a better way of phrasing, imo.

Whatever it means, your mum was with you in a hospital getting you the best care and probably worrying herself sick so don't dwell it now.
Cherish your memories, you're here and presumably striving now.
It probably had nothing to do with her care they wouldn't have let her take you home if you were being neglected, maybe she had problems getting you to latch on or something.

She only asked what it meant.

I am sorry for the loss of your mum. I agree with everyone else, it means that at the health checks you weren't gaining the expected weight and that she was keeping an eye on you. It isn't particularly subtle wording though!

A bit OT, but I remember ages ago reading of young children who were ‘failing to thrive’ being given gold top Jersey milk - richer in fat and IIRC in vitamins A and D.

Probably unaffordable for most of those in greatest need anyway.

Yes it means not gaining weight at the expected rate. I am relieved that term is no longer used.
Please bear in mind that in the 1970s bottle feeding was the norm and if you were breast fed your weight gain wouldn't be as high. So it is not necessarily anything to be concerned about now.

Sorry for the loss of your DM.
It's a medical way of saying that you didn't put on the expected weight and maybe to flag to the team to help support your DM. Maybe DMs milk didn't come in straight away, or tongue tie made feeding tricky, or you both took time to settle into a comfortable feeding routine. You both got into a rhythmn though eventually.

I work with children, some of whom often are failure to thrive, I have never heard the term faltering growth.

NICE in 2017 talking about faltering growth

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng75/chapter/Context

A screenshot from my link.

Yes, as others have said, it's just being slow to gain/re-gain weight as a baby generally, though could be used to refer to older children, but I think that's less likely. My eldest was nearly diagnosed as 'failure to thrive'. She had feeding issues in the first month due to latch problems and it took her 26 days to re-gain the weight she lost after birth. Midwives said if she didn't regain by 28 days she would have been classed as 'failure to thrive'. It's likely just because you were a sleepy baby, one that didn't wake to be fed, had latch issues/tongue/lip tie, maybe your mum had milk production issues (was anaemic, unwell, etc.), or they followed guidance around feeding that might have caused issues, but was more the 'done thing' back then, like spacing feedings, mixing in strange things to bottle feeds, etc.

I doubt it's the sort of thing that would have been mentioned. I've certainly never talked to my dd about her feeding issues in the first month. Maybe I would when/if she decided to have a baby. But definitely my mum never talked with me about any feeding issues I might have had.

Your mum probably didn't mention it to you as whatever was causing the issue was relatively minor and was corrected. It's not uncommon for babies not to hit weight "goals" due to tongue tie, milk not coming in etc and then come on just fine once the problem is sorted.

Interesting, never heard the term, still using failure to thrive, its on various medical reports for kids we work with too. Strange.

My mum used to use that phrase 'failure to thrive' as the reason she was advised to bottle feed me. She told me she'd tried to BF, but was told to give up and bottle feed as I'd 'failed to thrive'. This was in 1969 and not an uncommon thing then when women struggled to get BF established, rather than try to support them, as it wasn't regarded as as important as it is now.