Mothers’ eating disorder history and mother and infant attention to food during infant meal times: a candidate for intergenerational transmission of eating disorder behaviours

Children of mothers with EDs are at an elevated risk of developing an eating disorder themselves. One potential pathway of transmission of eating disordered behaviour from mother to offspring may be through behaviours shown during feeding and mealtimes. Existing evidence suggests that individuals with eating disorders show differences in attention to food compared to those without eating disorders, but no study had examined attention to food in mother-infant interactions. Using naturalistic observations of feeding at home, we showed that the infants of mothers with an eating disorder history showed increased attention to food during mealtimes. This provides preliminary evidence that attentional patterns during feeding interactions could be sensible targets for intervention.