Rabassa, Novélie <br/><br/>
Tackling orality head on: a sensory-motor clinical approach to infant eating disorders in perinatal psychiatry 

 -  2021.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> “My baby is not eating well” is a frequent motive for seeking a consultation in pediatrics as in child psychiatry. In psychomotricity, it seems essential to us therefore to observe a meal and to evaluate the baby’s sensory motor skills. It is also necessary to refine our understanding of the means of support and regulation offered by the baby’s immediate environment. Exploration of the mouth, the discovery of sensations, along with fine motor skills, are inseparable from the postural and relational support provided by close relations. Clinically, it is sometimes difficulties of tuning that are most evident in the dyad. Sometimes, it is sensory-motor difficulties that disturb the parental adjustments, mouthing behaviour, and, in short, the baby’s bodily organization. In both cases, the issue at stake, in psychomotricity, is above all, to discover with the parent how they can tackle their child’s difficulties head on in order to give them the support they need to approach meals with more pleasure.