A Study of Megestrol Acetate in HIV-Infected Children

Inclusion Criteria Patients must have: * Documented HIV infection. * Failure to thrive as defined by: * crossing 2 percentile lines on standard weight for age curves over time or less than 5% percentile weight for age and falling from the curve or loss of 10% of baseline body weight. * Resistant to oral nutritional supplementation (i.e., FTT despite a minimum 1-month trial of high-calorie oral supplements). * Free of significant acute illness (mild upper respiratory tract infections allowed). * Patients with chronic diarrhea allowed provided malabsorption and gastrointestinal infection ruled out. Exclusion Criteria Co-existing Condition: Patients with the following symptoms are excluded: * Gastrointestinal infection or malabsorption. * Significant acute illness. * Any identified, untreated cause for failure to thrive other than underlying HIV infection. * Medical contraindications to megestrol acetate. Patients with any of the following prior conditions or symptoms are excluded: Medical contraindications to megestrol acetate including a history of poorly-controlled hypertension, deep venous thrombosis, or heart failure. History of prior megestrol acetate therapy in the past six months.