A healthy living during the early stages is crucial to ensure the physical fitness of a child later. According to a new study emphasizing this principle, babies experiencing regulatory problems like feeding, sleeping or tactile reactivity, and maternal psychiatric problems are at higher risk of developing functional somatic symptoms (FSS) like headaches, pain, fatigue and dizziness by age seven.
Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital and Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark looked at 1,327 children.
All the babies underwent assessments four times before they completed 10 months. Apart from that, the researchers analyzed maternal mental health and the possibility of any mental disorder among mothers.
Infant regulatory factor, maternal postnatal psychiatric illness and financial status of the family were taken into account and thoroughly covered.
The investigators examined the prevalence of FSS when the participants were between five and seven years of age. Proving the link, a significant number of children (23.2 percent) were found having FSS. The occurrence was particularly high among girls (27.6 percent) than boys (18.8 percent).
Limb pain, stomach aches and headaches were the most common problems found among the children.
Children of mothers affected with depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety in the first year were found at a seven times higher risk of developing FSS between five and seven years and a three-fold risk was found among infants with regulating problems.
No links were found between FSS and household income.
"Parents of infants with regulatory problems could be taught to help their infants regulate their behavioral and physiological state, which potentially could reduce the risk of later development of impairing FSS," Dr. Charlotte Ulrikka Rask, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, said in a news release.
According to the researchers, detecting and treating the problem early can help prevent this occurrence.
"Interventions should include strategies to improve maternal mental health and parents' ability to handle the infant's regulatory problems, as well as strategies that focus on infants who have multiple regulatory problems," Dr. Rask said.
Findings of the study are scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics.
