The Impact of Maternal Eating Disorders and Spousal support on Neurodevelopmental Trajectories in their Toddlers

Parental mental disorders compromise parental functioning and are associated with greater negative cognitions and emotions about the parental role as well as with less adaptive parenting behaviors, including greater maternal stress, poorer availability to the child’s needs and less age appropriate stimulation of the child. Evidence also indicates a link between the type of parental and child mental difficulties . Given that eating disorders are defined bypathological eating as well as significant shape and weight concerns, it stands to reason that this type of maternal mental disorder is empirically linked with over-preoccupation with the child’s weight, many problems in feeding, and greater eating psychopathology in offspring as reported by both parents and children. However, in addition to these specific risks of feeding and eating problems, maternal eating disorders may be associated with a broader impact on child outcomes.

Beyond their ability to provide their child with healthy, varied nutrition that lays the foundation for a developing brain, parents are key players in their children’s cognitive development. Parents struggling with a mental disorder may find that the parental behaviors that facilitate early childhood intellectual development, namely flexible adaptation to the changing abilities and interests of their toddler, constitute a tremendous demand on their mental resources and add further stress that exacerbates typical parenting challenges. Recently, an association was found between maternal eating disorder history and delayed cognitive and psychomotor development among their toddlers whose age was 18-42 months old. Read more.................