Poor feeding in infants and children

Overview & Definition

A caregiver says the baby “is not feeding well.” That sentence can mean almost anything. It may mean half the usual milk volume. It may mean a 45-minute fight at the breast. It may mean coughing and turning blue with the bottle. It may mean a toddler who will only touch three foods. Your first job is not to name a syndrome. Your first job is to decide whether this child is in danger this hour. ^{[5] [26]}

Poor feeding means intake is inadequate, inefficient, unsafe, or so restricted that nutrition, hydration, growth or family function is threatened. That definition deliberately covers more than one disease. A day-3 neonate with sepsis and a school-age child with severe food selectivity both “feed poorly,” but the tempo and first actions differ. ^{[1] [11]}

Pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) is the consensus label for impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding-skill or psychosocial dysfunction. It is a framework for chronic or recurrent feeding problems, not a substitute for acute triage. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) sits nearby and can overlap; current consensus work helps separate shared ground from distinct mental-health pathways. ^{[1] [14] [15]}

This page owns bedside reasoning for poor feeding. It links to dedicated growth charting, faltering-growth, disease-specific gastroenterology and resuscitation pages rather than hiding those whole chapters here. ^{[3] [11]}

References37ShowHide

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