MI HR0242

Failure to Thrive (FTT) is defined as inadequate growth in infants diagnosed when weight for age drops below the fifth percentile or crosses two major percentile lines on a standard growth chart.

FTT accounts for 1-5 percent of all pediatric hospital admissions and is caused by difficulties maintaining life-sustaining nutrition due to multiple allergies and digestive problems.

Socioeconomic factors including financial hardship, lack of nutritional knowledge, and poverty-related family stressors significantly increase infant vulnerability to FTT.

75 percent of brain development occurs in the first years of life, warranting recognition of FTT as a specific illness rather than grouping it with other chronic conditions.

House urges the Michigan Department of Community Health to acknowledge Failure to Thrive as a specific illness and directs copies be sent to the Governor and the Department Director.