Parent concerns about infant regulatory problems: Excessive crying, sleep problems, and feeding difficulties

565 PARENT CONCERNS ABOUT INFANT REGULATORY PROBLEMS: EXCESSIVE CRYING, SLEEP PROBLEMS, AND FEEDING DIFFICULTIES Susan C. McDonough, Katherine Rosenblum, Ellen Devoe, Sheila Gahagan, & Arnold Sameroff Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, 300 N. Ingalls Bldg., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Infants with parents who believe they have developmental problems with physiological regulation in areas of crying, sleep, or feeding may be at risk for later mental health problems especially if parents’ feelings are affected by the problems. Normative data has not been available to determine if parents are tiected by these infant problems. This study was designed to provide information on the percentage of infants parents believe to have regulatory problems and the parental reactions to these problems The sample (N=409) involved parents of infants recruited from pediatric clinics at well baby visits during the first year and a half of life. The families were 60% Caucasian, 24% AfricanAmerican, and 16% from other ethnicities. Annual income ranged from below poverty to over $100,000. The infants’ ages were fairly evenly distributed across the range of 3-18 months, with a mean age of 44 weeks and equal number of males and females. Parents (90% mothers) were interviewed as they waited for their appointments with a questionnaire that explored the early development of their children and their reactions to any developmental problems in three areas: crying, sleeping, and feeding. The order of questions and number of positive responses were: Question 1) 2) 3) 4)

Does your infant eat/sleep/cry too much or too little Are you concerned about it? Does it tiect your available time or energy for other things? Does it affect your feelings about the infant?

Percent Yes 50% 45% 25% 11%

Almost two-thirds of the parents were either concerned or a&ted by their infants regulatory problems (65%). Frequencies of reports of concern varied by behavioral domain. When asked about their concerns feeding was the most frequent (24.0%) followed by sleep (19.8%) and crying (13.0%). When asked iftheir time or energy was affected, sleep was the most frequent (13.0%) followed by feeding (8.3%) and crying (6.0%). When asked iftheir feelings were affected crying was the most frequent (5.6%) followed by feeding (3.9%) and sleep (3.7%). Although these results do not indicate that the majority of infants actually have regulatory problems, they do demonstrate that the majority of parents of infants undergo some stress or adaptation in dealing with these infants around areas of sleep, feeding, or crying. Further work with such parents should be devoted to identifying which of these concerns puts parents or infants on a pathway to later mental health problems.