Failure to grow: lack of food or lack of love?

One of the most important criteria for good health in childhood is normal growth. Taking regular accurate measurements of length and plotting them on a centile chart is essential to spot early signs of growth disorders. Be alert for a "zig-zag" pattern on the chart: it could indicate psychosocial dwarfism (see opposite). Length is more important than weight for identifying growth disorders. Lack of love, or an adverse emotional or social environment, can cause growth failure even in a child who is eating enough. Such children have a condition called psychosocial dwarfism, which is due to hypopituitarism (too little growth hormone secretion from the pituitary gland). This condition does not respond to growth hormone treatment. Once the child is placed in an alternative environment, eg a good foster home, the hypopituitarism is reversed and rapid "catch-up" growth takes place. It often emerges that such children have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused.