Early feeding problems in an affluent society. II. Determinants.

The aim of this investigation was to identify different factors of importance for the occurrence of feeding problems during the first year of life. Forty-two infants, 3-12 months old, with feeding problems without any obvious medical explanation were matched to 42 controls with respect to age, sex and Child Health Centre (CHC) affiliation. Information was obtained by interviewing the parents and from medical records. Four factors emerged as being highly significant, namely "feeding problems presented by the parents during their own infancy" (p less than 0.001), "great anxiety experienced by the mother during the pregnancy" (p less than 0.02), "breast-feeding problems experienced by the mother" (p less than 0.001) and "ill-health in the mother" (p less than 0.001). A special study in which the maternal and paternal grandparents were interviewed, corroborated the parents' information on their own early feeding difficulties. This finding could explain a large proportion of the feeding problems that have no obvious medical origin.