We see that the mood of the mother, the interaction between mother and child, and the eating habits and attitudes of the mother are very important in the development of eating disorders in children.
Mothers who experience tension, distress and restlessness due to their own emotional problems can reflect this situation on their children, and as a result, a mutual action-reaction mechanism comes into play. The baby’s reluctance to feed causes the mother to be more anxious, tense and restless. In this state of mind, the mother either prolongs the eating process or cuts it off earlier than necessary, which causes the child to become more tense and irritable.
In a study conducted in 2004, it was shown that the behaviors that support growth, such as establishing closeness and contact with their children, decrease in mothers who have eating problems with their children.
Other studies have shown that children with such problems spend less quality time with their mothers and play less games.
It is known that when children are forced to eat certain foods by their parents because they are more nutritious, on the contrary, the child’s interest in eating that food decreases.
This type of compulsion may cause problems in the perception of signals such as hunger and satiety in children.
One of the mistakes made by some mothers during feeding is trying to feed the child even though the child can eat it himself, and reflecting the child’s anxiety about the child’s contamination of his hands and the environment. Such behaviors may prevent the development of the child’s sense of autonomy, as well as increase the child’s level of anxiety and make him cranky. It should not be forgotten that there is an intense emotional bond between the mother and the child, and the mother’s anxiety is transmitted to the child.
As a result, mothers of babies who have eating problems should first learn to cope with their own anxiety and distress, increase their non-meal sharing with the child, not prevent the development of their children’s sense of autonomy, and ensure the formation of a certain eating pattern, including their own.
Exp. Dr. Gökçe Küçükyazıcı
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
