GROW Clinic

The Texas Children’s Hospital GROW Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic for young children with failure to thrive, and is generously funded by the Morgan Stanley Foundation and the Houston area Morgan Stanley employees. The GROW Clinic is modeled after the clinic originally designed by Dr Deborah Frank at the Boston Medical Center, and is part of a network of Grow Clinics in Boston, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Children with the condition known as failure to thrive (FTT) do not initially keep pace with the weight gain of other children of a similar age. Once weight gain has been poor, linear growth slows as well.

Texas Children’s GROW Clinic provides a comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment of these children.  The GROW team takes a team approach to the evaluation and treatment of FTT, with a physician, behavioral psychologist, nutritionist, social worker and nurse working with each child and family.

The age group of children seen in GROW Clinic is 6 months to 6 years of age.

The GROW Clinic may be particularly beneficial for families where:

• Stressors such as poverty, limited education, parental illness, or limited social/family support may affect a child’s weight gain
• The basis for the child’s poor weight gain has not been determined by the primary physician
• A child’s hunger cues and needs may not be met within the home
• Feeding difficulties may impact rate of weight gain