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Feeding and sleeping problems in infancy--a follow-up at early school age
1Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden.
Insights
Infants with early feeding or sleeping issues often continue to experience these problems years later. Both child and family factors influence these persistent regulatory challenges, requiring comprehensive care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Medicine
Background:
- Infancy is frequently marked by feeding and sleeping difficulties.
- These regulatory issues are often linked to child and family dynamics.
- This study examines children with early feeding/sleeping problems six years post-clinical contact.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the long-term persistence of feeding and sleeping problems in children.
- To compare children with early regulatory issues against a reference group.
- To identify associated child and family factors at follow-up.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 230 families with early feeding/sleeping problems participated in a follow-up.
- Comparison with 227 reference families on various health and psychosocial measures.
- Questionnaires assessed feeding/sleeping problems, health, psychosocial status, and child behavior.
Main Results:
- Children with early feeding/sleeping problems showed persistent issues compared to controls.
- Clinical group children had more internalizing behaviors; recent problems linked to externalizing/internalizing issues.
- Mothers in the clinical group reported more health problems and lower social support.
Conclusions:
- Early feeding and sleeping problems tend to persist, though less frequently, as children grow.
- Child health care should consider both child and family factors for individualized, inclusive, and closely monitored care.
- Persistent regulatory issues highlight the need for comprehensive, long-term support strategies.
Background:
Feeding and sleeping problems are common during infancy. Many regulatory problems of this kind are connected to various child and family factors. This study is a follow-up of children with early feeding and/or sleeping problems, 6 years after clinical contacts.
Methods:
A total of 230 families (72%) participated in the questionnaire follow-up. Children and parents were compared with 227 (71%) reference families regarding sleeping and feeding problems, health factors in parent and child, psychosocial problems, stressful life events, social support, life satisfaction, and externalizing and internalizing behaviour in the child.
Results:
Six years after clinical contacts the children with early feeding and/or sleeping problems still had more problems of this kind compared with the reference children. Early child health problems were more frequent within the clinical group, but recent health problems did not separate the two groups. Mothers in the clinical sample reported more health problems than mothers in the reference group and clinical parents were less content with their social support and had more psychosocial problems, including stressful life events. Children in the clinical sample had more internalizing problems than comparison children. Recent feeding and sleeping problems were connected to more externalizing and internalizing problems.
Conclusions:
Early regulatory problems, concerning sleeping or feeding, are less frequent when the child grows up, but nevertheless tend to remain. A clinical recommendation for child health care is to take both child and family factors into account, to individualize contacts, work with an all-inclusive perspective and have close follow-ups.
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