Nurse said something strange about breastfed babies

[Chocolateegg123]

My 8 week old had her jabs today. The nurse at my GP surgery was taking an awfully long time getting down to business and kept faffing around such as explaining how to use a syringe for the calpol for about ten minutes. Then, she asked me if I was breastfeeding and when I answered yes, she asked how it was going.

I was honest and explained I’d found it hard and we had to combi feed etc but that my mental health had been really awful whilst breastfeeding and so I have considered moving over to formula.

She then completely matter of factly stated… “breastfed babies are more intelligent so if you can continue feeding her your milk you should.”

I was kind of taken a back as I didn’t think this was true but also is this kind of advice ok for a health professional to give? Whenever I have gone to a local breastfeeding clinic or spoken to a professional about my struggles they have never ever said anything like this?

I guess I want to know if I would be unreasonable to complain about this nurse? She has been unprofessional in the past when I went to have a vaccine during pregnancy and now this. However - is it true that breastfed babies are more intelligent? This has added to my guilt and anxiety over my breastfeeding journey now. Help!

That’s incredibly inappropriate of her and not even true, don’t listen to her, mine are totally thick and they were all breastfed 🤭

Correlation not causation I believe. I used to see this "fact" on display in my children's centre over a decade ago and complained then.

Complain.

No difference in breast, formula or tube feed baby intelligent or any other way... honestly if you go into a class of 5 year olds you struggle to find the difference in who walked first, who talked first, who was breast, formula or tube fed...a happy mum makes the most difference... please report her and you doing so well. Xx

What a silly comment from her. It would have been much better if she had said that breastfeeding is better for babies as it reduces the risk of colic etc. That's just a smarmy & small minded thing to say imo. I know very intelligent people who were formula fed and less smart people who were breastfed. There may be a slight corelation but it's not a 100% fact.

Fucking hell. No, there is no link between intellect and breastfeeding. I'd complain, that's totally inappropriate and could absolutely derail someone with tenuous mental health. Although I'd have been tempted to respond that she clearly wasn't breastfed either then.

Definitely report, I have severe PND from failure to breastfeed and this would have sent me into such a spiral

🤣🤣🤣

Complain!

I'm guessing her mum didn't breastfeed her then.....

I think they are trained to encourage breastfeeding. I think you should do what works best & not worry about what other people think. Lots of people on here will happily discourage bottle feeding. I find people on Mumsnet very judgemental about this issue.

It is a fact that across all populations breastfed babies have better outcomes across a wide range of different measures. What is less clear is how much is causation and how much correlation! People with higher levels of education are more likely to breastfeed, and to continue for longer, but children who have parents with higher education level are more likely to be more intelligent themselves … therefore it’s hard to say if it’s the breastfeeding of potentially better genes. I’m a huge breastfeeding advocate and it’s gets so much easier from 2 months onwards, it’s also free, convenient etc BUT do what is right for you. The nurse should have offered you encouragement to continue with things that are tangible rather than such a tricky to prove statement

Well it's not been proven that breastfeeding is the direct link to higher intelligence.

It could be linked to the intelligence of the mother/her education level and socialeconomic status. It's a fact that women who are higher educated are more likely to breastfeed in comparison to women who are not. A higher percentage from middle/upper class breastfeed compared to working class. So she's talking garbage.

If you're struggling with breastfeeding then it's absolutely okay to stop. A happy, healthy mum and a fed baby is all that matters. Don't feel any guilt over it. I think you should complain as no one should be making a new mum who is struggling feel guilty for their choices

Haha, I was just about to post this 😁

I think breastfed babies do generally have higher IQ scores but that is not necessarily because of breastfeeding - it may be that mothers with higher IQs are more likely to breastfeed.

Just saying 'breastfed babies are more intelligent' isn't helpful.

Not an appropriate comment but yabu to make a formal complaint about it. Just ignore and move on.

She's nuts. Ignore and complain.
Any link would be due to educational attainment of mothers.

My dd has two degrees she was formula fed Farleys (i think that was withdrawn just after she turned 1) weaned early her dad abandoned her and her stepdad turned out to be a cunt

She has TWO degrees good ones too not scraped through

My other formula fed children not so much

Leads me to believe fed is best

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I honestly believe what you feed your kids is so incredibly important. But I think what they eat between being weaned (from breast or bottle) to teenage years has a much bigger effect in their general health and well-being than breast milk or bottle. I was (and still am) completely unapologetically focussed on a healthy and varied and UPF free diet. I say teenage years because then they make their own food choices.

Anyway, my bottle fed firstborn is about to enter her second year of med school. My breast fed other two are taking a different oath, but equally as intelligent.

I reckon I've saved the world from total domination by my now adult child.

They are very bright despite the fact I never breast fed them, I smoked, drank alcohol throughout my pregnancy, and went back to work when they were six weeks old.

Child was born in 1970, none of the advice not to do these things was prevalent then, and I certainly wouldn't advocate for the things I did.

My point is, adult child is very intelligent. Imagine what they would be like if I'd followed the rules that now exist? If the prevalent rules are, in every case, right?

As a parent I did what I had to do/was told to do. Adult child is just fine.

As yours will be.

My sister is one of the most intelligent people I know, graduated 1st in her uni, PhD etc etc. Bottle fed from the get go. I’m not stupid either (just not in league of sister!) also bottle fed. Genetics and home environment trump feeding methods, all day long.
ETA 1970s babies- hardly anyone was breast fed.

I mean, I think you can pretty clearly pick out the bottle-fed primary school kids from the palor of their skin so I wouldn't dismiss her outright ..

Ffs.

If there is any statistically significant link then it is correlation not only directly to parental IQ by genetics, but mostly because more educated parents tend to value education more and be more engaged in their children’s education throughout their life, which is then linked to better exam results.

That was the trotted out line when my child was small.

She did very well in recent exams and I told it it was because she was bf- we laughed because we think it's a load of bunkum. She did not excel academically at any point (before this) and while she is a fabulous person I never had cause to brag about her reaching goals ahead of or even equal to her peers, she took her time and was grand but never notable (except in my eyes). Her formula fed sibling is exactly the same: middle of the road, fabulous human but never a cause to brag amongst fellow mums (also: except in my head).

The eldest I use as an example because I nearly killed myself doing everything by the book which I think contributed to pnd. Gina Ford was big at the time. My DD turned out the same, i believe, if she had been formula fed or breastfed. My second child got whatever was available at the time from whoever had a hand free as I was very ill. I doubt anything was even sterilised for them 😳.

Don't beat yourself up about any of these things: in 20 years you will laugh at how this seemed important (as you worry about completely different things).

Your best is THE best for your child and you are already doing it so: well done.

Report her and have vaccines done elsewhere. Also agree with others. 4 of mine BF and one of them (ironically the one who BF until 1) is a bit dense so what she said is crap.

As others have said, the link between IQ and breastfeeding is likely due to correlation rather than causation. And we are talking about the tiniest differences at a population level in any case, so it isn't really significant at an individual level.

I am willing to bet that maternal wellbeing has a much greater impact on a child's development than the method of feeding. So mums should make the decisions that are best for them, without guilt, as a happy, functioning mum will be best for baby too.