The Post-Traumatic Feeding Disorder in Infancy: A Comparison of Three Different Developmental Pathways

THE POST-TRAUMATIC FEEDING DISORDER IN INFANCY: A COMPARISON OF THREE DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS Background: the Post-Traumatic Feeding Disorder (PTFD) is characterized by a consistent food refusal after one or more traumatic insults to the oropharynx or gastrointestinal tract (e.g. chocking, severe vomiting, insertion of nasogastric tube). Food refusal and child’s distress during feeding persist even if the organic or medical adversity has been resolved. The history of traumatic experience and the anticipatory anxiety of feeding differentiate these infants from those with other feeding disorders. Goal: our study is aimed at exploring the pathways leading to PTFD: we would explore the interactions between Risk and Protective Factors that could explain the onset of this disorder. Method: we are recruiting three groups of children (age 12 to 60 months): PTFD Groups, children with a history of traumatic experience without food refusal, and normative children without PTFD and without traumatic experience. Up to now, we have selected 5 children for each group. The variables observed are: maternal and paternal characteristics (psychopathology, parenting stress, their IWM and the quality of the parent’s relationship), the infant’s characteristics (temperament and socio-emotional functioning) and parent-infant interactions during feeding and play sessions. Results: preliminary data show that in the PTFD group the feeding interactions are more problematic, with higher resistance to swallow food. These parents have difficulty to recognize the infants’ signals and to be responsive to their negative emotions. Our hypothesis is that there is a vulnerability in these parents, so they can not help to regulate their infants’ distress.