Abstract
Diencephalic syndrome, a rare cause of failure to thrive in infants and young children, is characterized by severe emaciation and hyperactivity and is often associated with hypothalamic tumor. In infants and young children, the diagnosis of brain tumor is frequently delayed because of the difficulty in performing a detailed neurological assessment and obscured symptoms of increased intracranial pressure due to unclosed cranial sutures. Here, we report the case of a 2-year-old girl who was diagnosed as having pilocytic astrocytoma of the hypothalamus and diencephalic syndrome presenting with a history of failure to thrive since 7 months of age. This observation suggests the importance of considering a brain tumor as a possible cause of unexplained failure to thrive in infants and young children.
