Poor growth Assessment Questionnaire

Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!

During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques to assess the symptom: Poor growth. These will include a physical examination and possibly diagnostic tests. (Note: A physical exam is always done, diagnostic tests may or may not be performed depending on the suspected condition) Your doctor will ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to openly share any pertinent information to help your doctor make an accurate diagnosis.

It is also very important to bring an up-to-date list of all of your all medical conditions, medications including dosages, and names of numbers of any specialist you see.

Create your printable checklist by answering questions that your doctor may ask below:

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What is the age of the child with poor growth?
When did the poor growth start?
Why: Growth failure may occur from birth, as in cystic fibrosis, whereas in celiac disease, for example, growth failure occurs after a period of normal growth. Intrauterine growth retardation is poor growth detected while in the uterus.
If an infant, are they being breast fed or bottle fed?
What are the feeding patterns?
If breast feeding, what is attachment to the nipple like?
Why: e.g. does the baby get a good mouthful of breast.
If bottle feeding, does the teat's hole allow milk to flow through adequately and is the formula being made up correctly?
If bottle fed, what is the total daily milk intake?
Demeanor of the baby or infant?
Why: e.g. happy and contented or irritable.
History of infection in the mother during pregnancy?
Why: e.g. toxoplasmosis, rubella, herpes simplex or other diseases may contribute to poor growth in the infant or child.
History of alcoholism in the mother during pregnancy?
Why: may contribute to the poor growth in the infant and child.
Drugs ingested by mother during the pregnancy?
Why: e.g. phenytoin, trimethadione, narcotics - may contribute to poor growth in the infant.
Was the infant born prematurely?
Why: may contribute to poor feeding and poor growth in the infant.
Details of the delivery?
Why: e.g. type of delivery, fetal distress, birth trauma, Apgar scores, any time required in the neonatal special care unit.
Was the child born with any birth defects?
Why: e.g. any abnormality either structural or functional, identified at any age, but that began before birth such as cleft palate, anencephaly, cystic fibrosis, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome, hypothyroidism, congenital heart disease.
Infection in the newborn?
Why: may contribute to poor growth in the infant.
History of head injury?
Why: may cause poor feeding and poor growth in the infant.
Environmental factors?
Why: e.g difficulty at home, unhappy family relationships, emotional deprivation, economic difficulties or unskilled feeding techniques may cause poor feeding and failure to thrive.
Family history?
Why: e.g. developmental delay, genetic disorders, stillbirths or deaths in infancy, dwarfism.
Developmental delay?
Why: e.g. gross motor skills, fine motor function, language, hearing, social skills and understanding.
Shortness of breath?
Why: If shortness of breath is severe it will affect feeding and may cause failure to thrive e.g. congenital heart disease, heart failure, asthma, cystic fibrosis.
Diarrhea?
Why: may suggest malabsorption of nutrients e.g. celiac disease as the cause of poor growth.
Vomiting?
Why: Vomiting must be severe and persistent to cause poor growth. Vomiting in the newborn may be due to low blood sugar, infection or duodenal obstruction. Vomiting in infancy may be due to infection, gastrointestinal reflux, pyloric stenosis and intussusception.

Conditions listing medical symptoms: Poor growth:

The following list of conditions have 'Poor growth' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.

Select from the following alphabetical view of conditions which include a symptom of Poor growth or choose View All.

View All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

Conditions listing medical complications: Poor growth:

The following list of medical conditions have 'Poor growth' or similar listed as a medical complication in our database.

» Next page: Types of Poor growth

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