Infant feeding behaviours and attitudes to feeding amongst mothers with eating disorders: A longitudinal study.

Abstract

This study aims to investigate breastfeeding, infant feeding behaviours, and attitudes to feeding amongst women with eating disorders (ED) and healthy controls (HC). Women with active ED (C-ED; N=25), past ED (P-ED; N=28), and HC (N=46) were recruited in pregnancy and followed up longitudinally. Post-natally infant feeding behaviour was investigated at 8weeks, 6months, and 1year and parental modelling at 1 and 2years. Women with P-ED and C-ED reported higher concerns about their infant being/becoming overweight compared with HC, respectively, at 8weeks and 6months and 6months only post-partum. Women with P-ED showed less awareness of infant hunger and satiety cues compared with HC at 8weeks. Despite few differences between ED and HC, both P-ED and C-ED predicted maternal attitudes and worries about child's eating. These are likely to impact on child's growth and later eating behaviours and might impact on the intergenerational transmission of ED.