Failure to thrive (FTT) or weight faltering used in both pediatric and adult medicine, as well as veterinary medicine (where it is also referred to as ill thrift) indicates insufficient weight gain or inappropriate weight loss.
When not more precisely defined, the term refers to pediatric patients. In MeSH, the term is assumed to refer to an infant or child. 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.
Famous quotes containing the words failure and/or thrive:
“No failure in America, whether of love or money, is ever simple; it is always a kind of betrayal, of a mass of shadowy, shared hopes.”
—Greil Marcus (b. 1945)
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)