A 3-year old boy was referred to a paediatric psychiatry out-patient clinic for major disorders consisting of hyperphagia, intolerance to frustrations and instability since the age of one year, and pica (i.e. the indigestion of non-edible substances) since the age of two years. These symptoms developed in a context of greatly disturbed parent-child relations, predominantly made of ambivalence and inability to define limits and interdictions. Conversations with the family are restoring the parental roles and improving the child's symptoms.