The Effect of Coeliac Disease on the Mother‐child Relationship

Abstract

SYNOPSISIt was found that there was a high incidence of emotional symptoms in these children, namely withdrawal, irritability and 'clingingness.' Accompanying these symptoms in the children there was a significant disturbance of the mother-child relationship, with maternal anxiety, maternal depression and maternal preoccupation. These symptoms in the mother and child disappeared or greatly improved once the child had responded to a gluten-free diet, except when the mother was already emotionally disturbed before the onset of the child's illness.The mother-child relationship was studied in 28 children with coeliac disease.

A Family Study of Coeliac Disease

“…The impact of disease on the family is sometimes overlooked by the medical practitioner caring for a child with a chronic disease. The effect on the mother-child relationship in 22 of these families, and the response to a gluten-free diet, have been discussed elsewhere (Gardiner et al, 1972).…”