ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses psychoanalytic perspectives to understanding the dynamics of feeding difficulties in childhood. The distinctive quality of psychodynamic approaches to feeding difficulties in infancy and childhood lies in the emphasis that is placed on understanding the emotional qualities of the feeding relationship. Establishing a feeding relationship is a momentous experience for both mother and infant. Increasingly, particularly in the field of child psychotherapy, psychoanalytic thinking is influenced by direct observation. The infant who 'feeds too much' is a snack feeder. Here the mother may be responding to infant communications more at a physical level than an emotional one, and 'there is no shape to the meal as an emotional encounter'. Difficulties in the feeding aspect of the infant-mother relationship, if persistent, can impact adversely on development, particularly in the areas of thinking, learning and symbolising. Some groups of infants are known to be poor feeders, including premature babies.
