The following is a summary of the “Prevalence of Parent Mental Health Problems in an Interdisciplinary Feeding Clinic: Short Communication,” published in the December 2023 issue of Pediatrics by Bakula, et al.
Parents of kids with pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) are likely to be under a lot of stress and may be more likely to develop mental health problems in the future. For a study, researchers looked back at the records of 413 parents who filled out screening forms at a joint feeding clinic to find out how common and what kinds of mental health problems parents have. 41.8% of parents said that both the mother and/or father had a mental health diagnosis.
Most parents who had a mental health problem did so with an anxiety disorder (71.1% for mothers and 50% for fathers) or a mood disorder (62.7% for mothers and 40.9% for fathers). For moms, 21.1% said their mental illness started after giving birth. Parents of children with birth complications were more likely than parents of children without birth complications to have a mental health condition (50.9%).
Also, children whose parents had a mental health condition were much more likely to have other medical problems. This study shows that when treating children for PFD, it was important to look at both parent mental health factors and child factors. This is because parent stress and mental health can affect how parents and children connect during mealtimes. More research needs to be done to come up with new ways to help the mental health needs of parents whose children have PFD.
Source: journals.lww.com/jpgn/abstract/2023/12000/prevalence_of_parent_mental_health_problems_in_an.26.aspx