Mother-child interactions during feeding: A study on maternal sensitivity in dyads with underweight and normal weight toddlers

During the second year of life, mother’s sensitivity in encouraging child autonomy supports children’s emotional- affective individuation. In the feeding context, there is a clear transition from dependence on the mother to an emerging autonomy. Several studies have found an association between children’s poor growth which is not related to organic pathologies, and maladaptive mother-child interactions that are characterized by poor maternal sensitivity. Despite this evidence, no studies have investigated maternal sensitivity to speci c child’s cues, such as demands for autonomy, during feeding interactions between mothers and their underweight children. This study aimed to assess how mothers’ psychopathological risk and toddler’s dysregulation pro le are associated with mother-toddler interactional quality during feeding, with particular attention to mothers’ sensitivity to child’s speci c cues (e.g. need of autonomy, requests for cooperation, request to stop the inter- action, etc.). One hundred fty mother-toddler dyads (N = 73 with underweight children and N = 77 with normal weight children) with children aged between 18 and 30 months, were recruited. Mother-toddlers feeding interactions were assessed through speci c rating scales applied to the video-recorded interactions and mothers lled out questionnaires on children’s emotional-behavioral functioning and their own psychopathological risk. Results showed a signi cant association between the quality of mother-toddler feeding interaction and children’s weight. Underweight children showed less demand for autonomy and request for cooperation than normal weight children. Moreover, mothers of underweight children were less sensitive to toddler’s cues of wanting to stop the interaction and demands for autonomy compared to mothers of normal weight children. Lower facili- tations were associated with toddler’s more dysregulated pro le and with mother’s higher psychopathological risk, and high toddler’s dysregulation pro le was associated with lower maternal sensitivity to child’s cues of wanting to interrupt interactions and with worse mother’s mood. Assessing maternal sensitivity in relation to toddler’s speci c cues might be particularly relevant in the feeding context. It might help to detect some dysfunctional interactive patterns and allow the implementation of prevention and treatment programs.