The family physician is often confronted with the problem of failure to thrive. The possible causes are numerous and diverse, so there is a tendency to attack the problem with a battery of expensive and sometimes unnecessary investigations, which serve only to upset the patient and contribute to the rising costs of health care. The use of a simple organized approach allows common diagnoses to be made with a minimum of costly investigations. In more complicated cases the use of this plan allows the family physician to pursue the investigation further, narrowing down the diagnostic possibilities before a consultation is required.
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