Mother-child interaction in a group of infants with gastroesophageal reflux disease: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCCTION: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) usually presents with nonspecific symptoms such as irritability, crying, and feeding rejection that could affect the infant's early interactions with his mother. A higher frequency of psychopathological alterations has been reported in mothers of children with GERD. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the mother-child interaction in dyads of infants diagnosed with GERD in the first months of life. DESIGN AND LOCATION: cross-sectional study collecting data prospectively in the Neurodevelopment Research Center (NRC) of the National Institute of Pediatrics (INP) from July 2010 to September 2012. PARTICIPANTS: 20 healthy infants with low perinatal risk, healthy except for GERD and their mothers. Measurements: The mother-child interaction was evaluated during a feeding session using the caregiver-child interaction Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale (NCAFS). The scores obtained were compared to reference values for Hispanics. The association between some of the dyads' characteristics and the interactions were analyzed. RESULTS: All the studied dyads had lower score values than the reference ones with statistical significance in all the subscales except in the promotion of cognitive growth. The greatest differences were recorded in the infant's subscales. The dyads with mothers with fewer years of schooling had lower scores both in the mother and the infant subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver-child interactions in infants with GERD showed restrictions with potential impact on neurodevelopment. Early mother-child interaction should be evaluated in these patients to achieve timely detection and intervention of possible alterations.