Integrative Review of Mental Health and Feeding Styles in Parents of Bottle-Fed Infants.

The review included only six studies, so it cannot be treated as strong evidence. The included studies were descriptive and correlational, and four were secondary analyses, so they show association, not cause. Feeding styles were often measured as practices such as adding cereal to bottles rather than with validated feeding-style tools. Only the study by Hellin and Waller measured anxiety, and it did not find that anxiety predicted feeding practices. Only Paulson et al. included fathers, and the bottle-to-bed item was collected from the mother's interview, so the parent performing the behavior is unclear. The review changed from formula-fed to bottle-fed infants because many studies did not specify whether bottles contained formula or expressed breastmilk. The search used four databases and did not include grey literature, so relevant studies may have been missed.

The authors report no conflicts of interest or relevant financial relationships.

Do not conclude that treating parental depression will improve infant feeding or reduce obesity. The review only suggests possible associations from six mostly cross-sectional studies, and many feeding style measures were not validated.