failure to thrive

Failure to thrive (FTT), more recently known as faltering weight or weight faltering, is a term used in pediatric, adult as well as veterinary medicine (where it is also referred to as ill thrift), to indicate insufficient weight gain or inappropriate weight loss. When not more precisely defined, the term refers to pediatric patients. In children, it is usually defined in terms of weight, and can be evaluated either by a low weight for the child's age, or by a low rate of increase in the weight.