Dorota Iwaniec 
Children who Fail to Thrive 
A Practice Guide

Three to five per cent of children fail to thrive. Without earlyintervention this can lead to serious growth failure and delayedpsychomotor development.

Such children typically present difficulties with feeding andsleeping, as well as other behavioural problems. Failure to growcan also involve attachment disorders, emotional maltreatment, neglect, and abuse.

Dorota Iwaniec has carried out the longest ever study on failure tothrive, following up on 198 clinical cases after a 20-year period.This extensive practical guide includes:

* numerous checklists and other instruments for use inassessments

* four chapters on intervention and treatments, with a particularfocus on multidisciplinary approaches

* a comprehensive literature review alongside original researchdata

* case studies drawn from the author’s lengthy clinicalexperience

This book is essential reading for social workers, health visitors, nurses, pediatricians, psychologists and child care workers.

Table of Content

About the Author.

List of Epigraphs.

Acknowledgements.

SECTION I: THE PROBLEM.

1. Introduction.

2. Historical Perspective of Failure to Thrive.

3. Failure to Thrive: Definition, Prevalence, Manifestation, and Effect.

4. Psychosocial Short Stature: Emotional Stunting of Growth.

5. Feeding/Eating Behaviour of Children who Fail to Thrive, and Parental Feeding Styles.

6. Parent-Child Interaction in Failure-to-Thrive Cases.

7. Child-Parent Attachment Behaviour of Children who Failto Thrive and Parental Responsiveness.

8. Fabricated or Induced Illnesses and Failure to Thrive.

SECTION II: THE FRAMEWORK OF ASSESSMENT.

9. A Framework of Assessment of Failure-to-Thrive Cases:Ecological

Approach.

SECTION III: INTERVENTION AND TREATMENT OF FAILURE-TO-THRIVECHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES.

10. Levels of Intervention.

11. Some Theoretical Approaches to Failure-to-Thrive Intervention.

12. Multidimensional/Integrated Model of Intervention in Failure-to-Thri ve Cases.

13. Approaches to Failure-to-Thrive Intervention Programmes.

14. Considerations Arising from Failure-to-Thrive Intervention Research.

Epilogue.

References.

Index.

About the author

Dorota Iwaniec is a Professor of Social Work and Director of the Institute of Child Care Research at Queen’s University of Belfast. She has extensive clinical and research experience of working with children and their families and, in particular, in failure to thrive, neglect, emotional abuse, and behavioural and emotional problems of children and adolescents. She has been researching failure-to-thrive children for the last 25 years and has recently completed a 20-year follow-up study. Prior to coming to Queen’s University she worked as a social worker, researcher, and trainer in Leicester for nearly 30 years, both at the Social Services Department and at the Department of Child Health at Leicester Royal Infirmary.