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!

No this is not true, and a judgy thing to say.

There are loads of factors that affect intelligence.

Definitely complain if you're up to it!

I remember that poster on the wall

Bf for a day, pass on essential gut bacteria (fair enough)
...
Bf for 4 months and baby less likely to get colds (OK)
...
Bf for 2 years and baby more likely to go to university 🤣

Propaganda.

(sorry, this has quoted the wrong post and I can't change, it was one that said she'd seen it on the wall in the clinic a decade ago)

definitely complain if you feel up to it.

I was definitely told this when my children were babies (over 20 years ago). I breastfed them both which is probably why I didn’t think to question it.

My mother didn’t breast feed me and I’m pretty intelligent. I have an IQ of over 140. Though maybe I’d have been Einstein level genius if I’d been breastfed 😂

Definitely complain her. A mother’s mental health is more important than what milk she offers.

This used to be peddled as absolute fact. Now it's clearer that it is more to do with the socioeconomic status of those who BF. The children of those who BF tend to have better opportunities, in essence.
I personally would be giving feedback to the GP practice about this. This kind of inaccurate comment could be detrimental to a vulnerable mother who's mental health isn't in the best place. Comments like this can really eat away at you if you're struggling. Bottom line is she's wrong and needs to be more careful with her words.
I hope you are doing ok. Whatever works best for you and your baby is the right decision for you.

I was bottle fed and have a PhD. Report the knobbish nurse.

I think there was a large scale study that did find this a few years back but they didn't control for mother's IQ so therefore the findings are stupid. And I say that as someone who breastfed until 3 both times

Brilliant response! I wish you’d said this OP!

It's generally accepted that BF babies do well academically. However this may be because MC mums are more likely to do so.its like many things really. I think it's the Ideal.but FF babies do well also.Dont report her.just forget her comments and feed babe However you feel happiest .

Clearly she wasn’t breast fed then, silly old cow!

What does this have to do with nationality??!!

She's talking total rubbish 🗑

I have a Physics degree and two postgraduate degrees but was formula fed from birth.

My son has just achieved greater depth in SATs and is off to grammar school in September- also bottle fed from birth.

Ignore her.

Complain!
My health visitor told me when I was really struggling to breastfeed that if I switched to formula, I couldn’t leave the house with my baby because you can’t safely make up a bottle of formula out and about.
It was only when a friend who is a GP told me that she formula fed all her babies that I felt ok about formula feeding and less guilty.
My formula fed baby is currently hoping to achieve his predicted 4 A stars in a few weeks and take up his offer at Oxford.

That's generally down to genetics, maybe she was bottle fed!

Oh for gods sake. My son is totally formula fed (except for 5 long days of blood sweat and lots of tears) he’s one of the brightest in the class. How dare she try and guilt you into continuing something you’re not enjoying. I haven’t scrolled down but I’m sure there are lots of people trying to pursuade you to continue, don’t do anything you don’t want to do. FF is not for everyone but for some it is! It was for me!

I think it would be very petty to complain. People will not bother talking to other people soon.

It’s funny as well because it’s like saying to someone, that apple will make you smarter than be that banana. Yeah the apple might be slightly “healthier” on some level if you dig deep into the science, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have the banana! You can absolutely have the banana and you’ll be absolutely fine..

I thought this was a fact. I read about this when I was pregnant with my first 18 years ago. I can’t even remember exactly what it was I read now, it was something along the lines of babies being breastfed between 6-9 months statically had a higher IQ by a certain amount of points

EH???

The link below has some info about this subject. However, as some have said what is not known is why babies who are breastfed tend to have a higher IQ. It might be due to socioeconomic reasons rather than something magic in breastmilk as the nurse suggested.

https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/news/new-study-finds-that-breastfeeding-directly-supports-children2019s-cognitive-development

Academically mediocre children here, and all three of them were breastfed 😄