'bf babies more intelligent' thread II

[bubbleymummy]

Ok, the original thread actually said that bf babies were more intelligent not because of bm but because their mum's were more intelligent...thread was killed by obsessive spamming from one idiot MNer and I would have been happy to let it die except that I clicked on a link on another thread and then came across this article which says that bf for even 4 weeks can have "?significant? effect on a child?s development in primary and secondary school".

Thought it might be an interesting way to reopen the debate given that many posters were saying there was lack of evidence for any intellectual benefits of bf.

It may also be to do with a child's willingness to learn.

Cymar - perhaps bf increases a child's willingness to learn

I breast fed Dc2 for two years so must be a bloomin genius!

Should also point out that the study isn't looking at IQ - it's looking at test performances at entry level and key stage 1, 2, 3.

sigh - just noticing it but please ignore the apostrophe in mums in my OP

Bubbley - ok, thanks not sure what I overheard then.

I also think personality has a bit to do with it too. I think it would be fair to assume that a FF child with an enthusiasm to learn may well do better in school than a BF child who has little interest in learning anything.

BTW most of the mums I know who BF were former factory workers, office juniors and care assistants, not degree holders in professional jobs. In fact, the highest qualified mum I know who BF, has an NVQ2 in health and social care.

It just can't have an effect,there is no logic to it. What makes kids do well at school is a combination of what I listed and probably a few other things too. Without this support kids struggle, end of.

Within a week of kids starting school you can pick out the ones who get the support at home. They fly,if they weren't bf they'd still fly(SEN issues aside). You can also tell the ones who continuously get to bed on time too,makes a huge impact.If a child was bf and up until late most nights his education would still suffer.

Also SATs don't suit a lot of kids. I've taught some exceptionally bright kids who were just average in SATS. Summer birth boys often take a while to catch up with writing,this has a big effect on SATs results in the younger end of school. Some kids just don't suit SATs. Personality plays a huge part too.

Believe you me SATS are the last thing you'd ever base any credible data on,they often don't tell you much and teacher assessment is far more reliable. For that reason alone I'd ignore this study let alone taking pure common sense into account.

Milamae

Why do you think that there is no logic to the idea that infant feeding could make a difference to IQ?

Obviously IQ is determined by a number of factors - no-one on this thread has suggested otherwise, or even that brestfeeding makes a large difference to IQ.

I'm talking Bubbly's quote -"4 weeks bf has significant effect on a child's development in primary and secondary school"-total tosh.

Re IQ-it's not so much logic but that the science is so flimsy it's just not reliable enough.

Exactly tsc until "studies" are done on identical twins for a significant amount of time I aint buying anything.I have the same opinion for all "wonder foods" not just bm.

I think it is a perfectly reasonable idea that human milk would allow a baby's brain to develop exactly as it should and that fm, being made from the milk of another species, would not allow this in the same way. Be it proteins in the milk or whatever...

Milamae, do I have to tell you about controls again? Stop making irrelevant comparisons!

Rollit, how else would you suggest they control for factors such as education? Also, education wasn't the only thing they used as a control - there was quite a long list.

Milamae - that was the quote from the article not my own.

The study is not based on IQ.

Not sure why you're talking about 'wonder foods' tbh.

I'd also like to see those who disagree with the study produce some evidence that shows that fm may increase intelligence because simply saying that you don't believe it doesn't really mean very much. If there was one you can bet your life that every formula company would be throwing it around!

Sorry "controls" don't impress me.My dp just took part in a medical study recently,his interviewer tried to coax dp in to answering several questions the way he thought he should.

Also as others have said this issue has been discredited before,give it a year and there will be another study saying there is no credible evidence.

Sorry mums should go on common sense if they want to ensure their kids do well at school not buy into every tin pot "study" that The Daily Fail likes to scare us all with.

MilaMae but how do you know that the children who were BF are not doing even better than they would have done if they were FF?

You don't know and you can't know.

I have heard that there is a correlation between maternal education level and how well a child does educationally. The father's educational level didn't show this correlation. Nothing to do with BF, just something I thought was interesting.

Exactly TSC(I know exactly what you mean) and there have been studies linking health and educational benefits to sleep.

Speaking of which I must get some.....