Symptoms And Causes Of Abetalipoproteinemia

Failure To Thrive

Failure to thrive is often seen in infants with abetalipoproteinemia. It is caused by inadequate nutrition that may develop as a result of the insufficient fat and vitamin absorption that characterizes this syndrome. Clinically, doctors define failure to thrive as height and weight measurements below the third or fifth percentiles. Infants and children who are struggling to thrive typically have a lack of appropriate weight gain, excessive sleepiness, delayed development of motor skills, and difficulties with learning and behavior in later childhood. They might also display a lack of vocal sounds, a lack of age-appropriate social responses such as smiling, and fatigue or irritability. For patients with abetalipoproteinemia, treatment for failure to thrive normally focuses on vitamin supplementation and adequate intake of appropriate dietary fats. Since abetalipoproteinemia causes problems with the absorption of long-chain saturated fatty acids, doctors recommend infants with this condition to be given plenty of medium-chain fatty acids to support normal growth patterns; these medium-chain fats can be carried through the bloodstream without the need for apoB-containing lipoproteins.

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