CHARACTERIZATION OF FAILURE TO IMBIBE IN INFANTS

The term failure to imbibe is proposed to describe infants with failur e to thrive due to poor feeding. Feeding assessment was performed in 1 28 patients: 43 healthy controls, 53 diseased controls, 12 with nonorg anic failure to thrive, and 20 with failure to imbibe. Infants with fa ilure to imbibe required a significantly longer time to feed compared with other infants. In contrast to other infants with nonorganic failu re to thrive, patients with failure to imbibe were more likely to need pediatric subspecialty care and nasogastric or gastrostomy tube feedi ng. Since these patients may have treatable conditions, infants with f ailure to imbibe merit further investigation.