Guideline Video

Guideline Resources

  • Diagnosis and Management of Faltering Weight
  • American Academy of Pediatrics
  • March 16, 2026
  • Summary
  • Full-text

Video Transcription

Just published March 16th, 2026, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ newest guideline on Diagnosis and Management of Faltering Weight.

This guideline is designed for pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers who see children in the outpatient setting who have problems meeting growth expectations and goals. 

In today’s rapid update, we'll just be going over the key action statements from this guideline. For the full guideline, make sure to check it out on guidelinecentral.com

Let’s get started. 

  • The guideline suggests against using socioeconomic status as an assigned risk factor when diagnosing faltering weight.
  • In children who have certain conditions that suggest a focal evaluation or have persistent faltering weight, the guideline suggests diagnostic testing rather than no testing.
  • In children without specified conditions that suggest a focal evaluation, the guideline recommends against diagnostic testing as part of the initial routine workup for faltering weight.
  • In children with faltering weight, the guideline recommends against endoscopy as part of the initial routine workup.
  • In children with persistent faltering weight or who have concerns for conditions that cannot be diagnosed without endoscopy, the guideline suggests endoscopy with biopsy rather than no endoscopy.
  • In children with faltering weight, the guideline recommends the use of increased calories of food/energy rather than no increased calories of food/energy.
  • In children with faltering weight, the guideline suggests the use of oral nutritional supplementation rather than no oral nutritional supplementation.
  • In children with faltering weight who have documented feeding issues, the guideline suggests therapy for pediatric feeding disorder rather than no therapy for pediatric feeding disorder.

And there you have it. Make sure to check out the full guideline from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other related clinical decision support tools at guidelinecentral.com.

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