Growth failure is prevalent among infants with CHD. A Standardized Clinical Assessment and Management Plan was introduced at Boston Children’s Hospital’s cardiac medical ward to identify patients with growth failure, evaluate relevant contributing conditions, and recommend a management plan including collaboration with nutrition physicians.

The objective of this study was to determine whether enrolled patients had improved growth compared with historical controls.

A total of 29 patients were enrolled in the period July, 2013–June, 2014. In all, 42 historical controls who met eligibility criteria for enrolment were selected for comparison from patients admitted to the same ward in the period June, 2010–June, 2011. Patients with CHD aged <1 year , with growth failure defined as weight-for-age z-score <−2, or failure to sustain adequate weight gain were eligible for participation. Primary outcome was change in weight-for-age z-score from enrolment to most recent weight measurement among patients with at least 6 months of follow-up.

Control patients were older at baseline admission weight (118 versus 95 days, p=0.33), and had a higher weight-for-age z-score, −2.9 (−3.1, −2.6) versus −3.7 (−4.3, −3.0) (p=0.02), compared with enrolled patients. Enrolled patients had greater gain in weight-for-age z-score, 2.7 (2.0, 3.4) versus 1.8 (1.5, 2.2) (p=0.03), from baseline to most recent follow-up.

Patients enrolled in a nutrition-focused protocol had greater weight improvement than historical controls. Identification of growth failure and collaboration with a nutrition support team was associated with improved weight gain among CHD patients experiencing growth failure. CHD programmes should consider a structural approach, including nutrition expertise to address growth failure.