Caccia utilizes Bick's model of infant observation and a Kleinian understanding of early psychic life to explore the phenomena of disordered eating in infancy and the intergenerational transmission of pathology. She considers the positive and negative aspects of early projective identification. She also addresses the quality and integration of part objects in the mind of the mother, insofar as these affect the developing mental life of the infant.

In the absence of organic and/or traumatic causes of eating disorders in infancy, Caccia sees the emergence of significant eating disorders