Nurse said something strange about breastfed babies

@Sp0rtB3rry

"Re the benefits of breast feeding on intelligence, it’s actually negligible which ironically is pretty obvious to anybody with a modiicum of intelligence"

Why is it 'pretty obvious to anybody with a modicum of intelligence'?

Experiences in the first year of life have an impact on infant brain development, which in turn may have an impact on cognitive development and IQ - breastfeeding is not the same as bottle feeding. Not the milk nor the actual act of feeding.

This study done by a team at a top US university suggested that the impact of infant feeding is identifiable with MRI. They looked at 133 babies ranging in ages from 10 months to four years. All of the babies had normal gestation times, and all came from families with similar socioeconomic statuses.

The study showed that the exclusively breastfed group had the fastest growth in myelinated white matter of the three groups, with the increase in white matter volume becoming substantial by age 2. The group fed both breastmilk and formula had more growth than the exclusively formula-fed group, but less than the breastmilk-only group.

“We’re finding the difference [in white matter growth] is on the order of 20 to 30 percent, comparing the breastfed and the non-breastfed kids,” said Deoni. “I think it’s astounding that you could have that much difference so early.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23721722/

Pointing to sibling studies from 2005 isn't necessarily the trump card you think it is. But if you want to argue that sibling studies should be the last word on this issue, this sibling study from 2025 points to breastfeeding having a positive impact on child development. “Breastfeeding Duration and Child Development,” appeared in JAMA Network Open on March 24, 2025 (Volume 8, Issue 3, article e251540).

I think the point I'm making is that just saying 'you're not just wrong to believe that infant feeding might have some impact on brain development/IQ/cognitive development - you're unintelligent' - it's like we're not allowed to have a difference of opinion on this issue without opening ourselves up to personal abuse.

Repeating more loudly for people at the back (again) not a single study on the link between infant feeding and IQ has posited that people who were not breastfed as infants are unintelligent.

I could not breastfeed (I did not produce milk!) and my son went to Oxford. Utter nonsense.

That is an interesting study and definitely a good way to rule out other factors.

@ohnotthisagain2025

I suspect you're trolling here, but would you be willing to say what in your eyes makes someone a 'breastfeeding nazi'? Is it that they don't share your views on the benefits of breastfeeding? What makes them 'a nazi'?

I trained with a charity recently as a breastfeeding peer supporter, and I don't share your opinion on the evidence on breastfeeding and brain development/IQ. Does this mean I'm a 'breastfeeding nazi'? Would you be willing to point to anything I've said on this thread that you see as evidence that I'm cruel and hateful? Or is it just a term you've chucked at women in the past without thinking very much about what you're saying?

The women I trained with on the peer supporter group were mums of all ages and from a wide range of backgrounds. The thing we shared was that we'd all struggled with breastfeeding at one time. The other thing we shared was a willingness to give our time unpaid to help mums who were looking for support with breastfeeding. Would this qualify us as 'breastfeeding nazis'?

I've reported your comments by the way .

You provided a news article, but several posters have provided many more links to a variety of other actual recent studies upthread. Have you read them? Are you going to address them all?

Well there is definitely evidence that breastfed babies are more intelligent, but research is mixed as to whether this is a causal link.Some research studies have shown that even when factors such as parental intelligence and socio-economic differences are removed, that breastfed babies are still smarter , where as other studies have not!
The nurse wasn't wrong, as the evidence is mixed, so I'm not sure you have grounds for complaint.
Leaving intelligence Side, it is still an indisputable fact, that for many reasons, breastfeeding is best where possible.

So yep, the nurse is a pos and can be completely ignored. Sorry you experienced her bigotry OP.

Nope, I'm right, it has. And I provided links, but you already know this.

I knew pointing out the breast feeding nazis got it completely wrong would upset the breast feeding nazis - job done :)😎

Well, it hasn’t been “debunked” — you’re wrong. Many of the more recent studies have more sophisticated controls and still show an effect on cognition from breastfeeding — increasingly in the newer studies in fact, particularly the ones using MRI scans to measure the percentage of different types of brain matter.

Try reading a range of different actual studies rather than one news article, perhaps?

Right, but it’s a bit of a leap?

If I went for my smear test and mentioned I was thinking of going vegan I wouldn’t expect the nurse doing my smear to proactively offer me info about how to make sure I keep my B12 levels up, without me asking for help or advice on it. Sadly the NHS is pretty stretched.

@Parker231 I think we both agree it was an ill-advised comment from this nurse but there’s no need to extrapolate beyond that. It’s great that you are pleased with your own choices and feeding journey.

At the appointment the OP expressed concern about breast feeding and that she was thinking of moving onto formula. So information about the best way to do so isn’t unreasonable.

@ohnotthisagain2025

You genuinely don't believe that anyone has a moral right not to share your opinion about the evidence on the benefits of breastfeeding.

And you have the temerity to to refer to these people as 'nazis', and to feel smug them being offended by being referred to as a mass murderer.

Again - gross.

My DH‘s family were murdered in the holocaust so I do find it offensive - is this what you mean by offending the “right” people?

It’s certainly an effective expression for demonstrating the kind of person you are.

@ohnotthisagain2025 as I think your post acknowledges, there is academic research which suggests there is a link, even if it is “tenuous” or its effects are limited.

It sounds like the HCP in this case may not have been aware of the nuances of the research around this. But equally, numerous posters on this thread, who have made comments like “my child is so smart and was formula fed so this must be wrong”, have also revealed a fundamental lack of understanding of the point - so it’s obviously not straightforward for the average person to get their head around.

Quite unnecessary to call people nazis or bigots in this context.

@ohnotthisagain2025

First off - why are you name calling breastfeeding advocates by the worst name anyone could ever call another human being? WTF is wrong with you?

Second of all, it's not 'ancient debunked theory' - there's a load of recent research, including the MRI studies from Brown University I linked to earlier in this thread, that point to differences in brain and cognitive development according to feeding method. There is evidence including sibling studies, that controls for economic and educational background. Yes, the evidence is mixed, and it's complex. What there isn't is the certainty that you suggest, that infant feeding has zero impact on cognition and brain development.

In fact you own quote doesn't indicate that the theory that breastfeeding impacts on brain development is 'rubbish' and 'completely debunked' in the phrase "In reality, the causal link is much more tenuous."

Why would you misrepresent the literature on this issue? To win a popularity contest on mumsnet? 'I breastfed myself and I hate breastfeeding advocacy, plus breastfeeding makes no difference' basically. That's covering all the bases.

You've taken an unkind and tone deaf comment made by an HCP to a new mum who's struggling, and spun it into a hateful rant about anyone who supports breastfeeding who doesn't share your views on what the scientific literature says about the benefits of breastfeeding. Gross. Wind your neck in.

comments like this are a form of manipulation and blackmail. Ignore her and complain.

No it is definitely NOT true, but this used to be trotted out regularly by breastfeeding nazis, here and elsewhere. Correlation is very much NOT causation in this case.

I remember pointing out that the reason some women had time to breastfeed was they were wealthier and had more time to sit around interacting with their kids, and women who are wealthy enough to stay home and breastfeed also generally have tons of time to sit and play with their kids, stimulate them, take them to classes and get them tutors and etc, this would seem to indicate that breastfeeding = higher IQ could be safely debunked as having confounding variables.

Turns out, I was right.

“Gibbs and Forste found that reading to an infant every day as early as age 9 months and sensitivity to the child's cues during social interactions, rather than breastfeeding...were significant predictors of reading readiness at age 4 years,”

She is going by ancient, debunked history. I'd say you should send her links to the proper studies, but breast feeding nazis never listen anyway.

Oh and yeah, I breastfed both of mine, before any of the nazis start in on me. I just know there's a lot more to parenting than being a smug cow who thinks they're better than those who don't have the luxury of wealth and time.

https://news.byu.edu/news/study-shows-why-breastfed-babies-are-so-smart

"In reality, the causal link is much more tenuous. We can see this by looking carefully at a number of studies that compare children who were breastfed to their siblings who were not. These studies tend to find no relationship between breastfeeding and IQ. The children who were nursed did no better on IQ tests than their siblings who were not." from sciencefriday.com /articles/ does-breastfeeding-affect-intelligence/

There's tons of those articles out there, but unfortunately once an unproven idea is embraced by bigots it is hard to shake.

OP didn’t ask her for help with that though - she’d just brought her baby in for jabs I think?

It sounded like a misplaced attempt at encouragement to me. I remember feeling very sensitive about comments when my babies were small - eg when they cried out and about and people would say “are they hungry” - which I took as a suggestion that I wasn’t feeding them.

People get really het up about feeding in the early days but most can put it behind them/gain some perspective as their kids grow.

A couple of nurses and health care assistants said some awful things. I wish I had complained but it would have been ‘she said / she said’ and I had other priorities at the time.

In the ward with DC1 in the early hours after a night, unplanned C section, DC1 screaming lots, was struggling to feed or calm DC1, was desperate. soothed with my little finger in DC1 mouth. Health care assistant said ‘if you do that you’ll never be able to breast feed’.

In the maternity assessment unit waiting area (waters had broken with DC2 around 35 weeks) I was sat with crossed legs. A nurse said ‘don’t sit like that, you’ll get a deep vein thrombosis and could die’.

As the OP had said at the appointment that she was thinking of moving onto using formula, why didn’t the nurse provide practical guidance about the safest way to do this - practical positive help rather than negative information?

Just repeating more loudly for the people at the back: there's no research that suggests that breastfed children are intelligent and formula fed children are not. None.

She wasn't 'talking bullshit' - there's a lot of research pointing to breastfeeding having a positive impact on brain development and on cognitive skills. However, raising this issue with a mother who is struggling with breastfeeding is tone deaf and actually quite unkind.

She was talking bullshit. Honestly,these medical professionals will say ANYTHING to try and get mothers to persevere with breastfeeding.