ABSTRACT
Feeding is a fundamental experience of life where the experience of being fed is heavily influenced and coloured by the emotional experience of the feeding mother and the early feeding situation. This heavily influences all subsequent feeding experiences which extend at an abstract level, to the learning experience of "taking things in". Insufficient attention is paid to the quality of the reading material children are "fed"—particularly with regard to its being boring, patronising or un-settling. A similar lack of attention is paid to the fact that the character and personality of the teacher is far more influential than their technical efficiency or qualifications. Full-blown anorexia nervosa is a serious, and sometimes life-threatening problem, but it is not a mysterious affliction that comes like lightning out of the blue sky but the extreme end of the spectrum of eating disorders and feeding difficulties.
