Imprinting disorders as a window to understand pediatric feeding disorders

Imprinting disorders are a group of rare congenital disorders characterized by common clinical features that affect growth, development, metabolism, and shared molecular abnormalities [1]. Patients with these disorders exhibit feeding difficulties and changes in social skills. Pediatric feeding disorders affect approximately 25% of children in the general population but have been difficult to understand and manage globally; indeed, they have traditionally been approached from different professional disciplines, each advocating its own unique method. An interdisciplinary consensus group recently introduced a more integrative definition of pediatric feeding disorders. From this new approach, we hypothesized that the imprinted genes may play an important role in the relationship between feeding and social development. In addition, we hypothesize in this letter that research on imprinting disorders may contribute to a better understanding of pediatric feeding disorders.