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"Can someone tell me what's going on with my child?": A qualitative study on parental health-seeking behavior for

Febe Hertveldt1,2, Guido Van Hal3, Edwin Wouters4

  • 1Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610, Belgium. febe.hertveldt@uantwerpen.be.

Archives of Public Health = Archives Belges De Sante Publique
|July 29, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Parents seeking help for infant regulatory problems (RP) often face delays due to a fragmented healthcare system. Addressing missed opportunities in care pathways can improve timely access to specialized support for infants and families.

Area of Science:

  • Infant mental health
  • Developmental psychology
  • Pediatric healthcare

Background:

  • Infant self-regulation develops through caregiver co-regulation.
  • Regulatory problems (RP) in infants can disrupt this process.
  • Parents of infants with RP often experience prolonged, ineffective health-seeking behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To understand parental health-seeking behavior in response to infant regulatory problems.
  • To identify missed opportunities in the healthcare journey of families with infants experiencing RP.

Main Methods:

  • Qualitative descriptive study involving 14 families (25 parents) with infants admitted to tertiary care infant mental health clinics.
  • Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.
  • Extreme case study sampling was used to recruit participants.

Main Results:

  • Parents' need for answers about infant behavior triggers help-seeking.
  • Recognition and validation from social networks and providers are crucial for timely referrals.
  • A holistic approach considering infant socio-emotional health and parental well-being is lacking.
  • Parents feel abandoned within a fragmented healthcare system ('healthcare maze').

Conclusions:

  • The fragmented nature of healthcare seeking leads to delayed referrals for infants with RP.
  • Addressing identified missed opportunities can improve care pathways for these families.
  • Enhanced support and a more integrated approach are needed for infants with regulatory problems.
Abstract

Keywords:
Extreme case samplingHealth-seeking behaviorHealthcare providersHolistic healthInfant mental healthMissed opportunitiesQualitative researchRegulatory problems

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