Formula vs Breastfed babies in the long term

[shewhocannotbenamed]

I'll probably get a lot of hate for this but I've been wondering recently whether breastfeeding is really as beneficial as we are led to believe. I've read all the NHS pamphlets, listened to all the midwives etc and did exclusively breastfeed my LO for the first 4 months of his life. I've found it super difficult, not just in terms of an inconvenience to me but also my baby was not gaining sufficient weight, crying constantly, getting coughs and colds on a weekly basis, he had jaundice for like two months and generally wasn't a very happy child.

We switched to formula two months ago and what a change - turns out baby has grown to be on 98th centile in length, chubbier (back on his centile from birth), happy, smiley, doesn't get any colds now, very sociable. Whinges here and there but nothing like before.

I was talking to my friend about breastfeeding the other day and she was very proud she's managed to exclusively breastfed her youngest up until she was six months, she "never had a drop of formula milk" while her firstborn was combination-fed. Then it struck me that she'd also complained previously that her daughter (now 6) is underweight and underperforming academically whereas her son is a bit of a golden child and succeeds at everything he sets his mind to. Obviously I don't dare to suggest this is just down to the feeding method in their early childhood, but just wonder.

Just wonder what are your experiences with this? Is it always "breast is best" for their long term development?

Oh, god.

Interesting topic for discussion but you know this isn't going go well.

Hang on a min, I need to fetch some popcorn.

So you think bf babies do less well academically and physically? Erm no. Sorry it didn't go that well for you but please don't try to generalize from an example of one.

@EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic @Bringmesunshite yes yes, I'm preparing for the slaughter that will inevitably follow :-P

Literally I'm not trying to offend anyone - I exclusively breastfed my LO, too and I realise there's a lot of science that advocates for this feeding method but my experience has been that formula made the baby much happier.

My bright academically able fit wonderful dd was ff because I was too poorly to bf. This does not mean anything. Her fellow bright able fit etc classmate was bf.
I beat myself up very regularly that I couldn't bf. At the time I felt like a useless failure.
There, I've bitten. Good luck with the rest of this thread.

I think it might be a good idea to find out a bit more about how statistics work, OP.

I have two children, both exclusively breastfed, one a happy child, one not so much. It's down to personality, not feeding method (unless they're struggling to feed, or have an intolerance). Both were also on the 98th centile as babies. DD is now at school and doing very well (but she is one of the oldest in the year which helps).

There is no corallation between long term development and feeding method. A statistic will tell you whatever you manipulate to tell you. But here's the thing.

Some women get on well with breastfeeding and that works for them and their babies do well. Some women don't get on well with breastfeeding and they stop and give their babies formula and their babies do well.

My personal view is that people should do whatever works for them, and that they should be supported in doing so.

Once your baby reaches about two nobody cares any more. By the time it reaches school age it's not even a point of discussion any more.

Far too much emphasis is placed on feeding. As long as a baby is fed, nobody else should care how that occurred.

But I'm sure that some will come along soon to tell people that not trying is child abuse yada yada yada. Personally I think that anyone who has an interest in baby feeding if they have children over the age of about three needs to get out more.

From what I've read, I think that in western countries, with good access to clean water, proper sterilisation and correctly following the guidelines, the difference is negligible. Something like one less cold and one less episode of d and v before the age of 5.
The biggest factor that influences intelligence is the intelligence of the mother (or primary care giver).
I'm no expert though!

OP perhaps time to google the difference between anecdote and data.

There is long term published data on this.
Anecdotal data doesn't mean much. Look at some published stats on affect on weight, immunity etc. This can be conflicting but it is better than anecdotes.
My only comment is: I found breastfeeding bloody tough for the first 8-10 weeks. It is pretty difficult for many people.

I do wonder about this myself. My twins were mix fed for 8 weeks or so and then formula fed. To be honest I credit the formula with a lot - me being happier and more settled with them, them getting loads of good quality sleep, which I think is essential for brain development (they were sleeping through by 10 weeks and I do credit this to formula and routine because they were two very different babies and I had to manage them into this situation for my own sanity!).

I've also been thinking that in these modern times, a lot of us don't get very decent levels of nutrition - partly because we consume less calories than we did 100 years ago because we are much less active so in that way, we get less nutrients by default, and also because of modern life and farming methods many of us are depleted in (for example) magnesium and vitamin D.

I wonder how much about breast milk is perfect in these modern times.

I'm pregnant and I really want to breastfeed successfully this time, partly to assuage my guilt at 'failing' last time, but there is also a bit of me thinking that formula isn't so bad after all and it does have definite advantages. I'm actually really struggling to get my head around it all ahead of the birth.

I believe the research has suggested that breastfed babies can have slightly better problem solving skills at the age of 3 but there is no difference by the age of 5.

I'm exclusively breastfeeding but am a very strong believer in "fed is best"

For me personally I believe breastfeeding my dc gives them better milk than formula and yes I believe the benefits of breastmilk will have long term good effects. I also respect every mothers right to choose how she feeds her own child

You have one rather silly example to base your theory on yes? Show me some actual evidence for what your saying and I'll take you seriously 😂

There is another dimension which is important to consider and that is that breastfeeding is better for the mother's health long term, having a protective effect against breast cancer.

Statistics. Robust, peer reviewed scientific studies.

They are publicly available. If you research them you'll find thousands that will answer your question.

Or you could ask a self selecting group of people on an internet forum to provide anecdotes and confirm a pre-existing bias.

Either or.

There is little to no solid scientific evidence that breastfeeding provides children with any advantage over formula fed children.

You can't compare on an individual level. On a population level stats show bf children do slightly better- but that's just what it is - population statistics.
My DS was FF from birth and is tall for his age, pretty healthy and fairly bright. My feeling is if I had bf him he would be tall for his age, pretty healthy and fairly bright- as it makes very little difference on an individual level.

You can't tell. There are small positive trends observed in research for breastfed children but they aren't big enough to notice on an individual basis and anyway a sample size of two is absolute rubbish.

It really doesn't make a difference worth gloating about.

I wish women had better support to be helped with breastfeeding if that's what they want but I also don't think anyone should have one iota of guilt if they decide formula works better for them.

We are extremely fortunate to live in a country where we have access to clean water and the means to heat it, we can usually read, our healthcare is good and accessible and we generally understand about hygiene. These cancel out the serious health risks of formula. We have a choice - we shouldn't waste time and energy trying to one up one another.

😱 my one child who was formula fed (well I did put EBM down his NG tube for a bit) .... he is severely disabled !!! The other two who were both BF for 26 months until they self weaned are intelligent, happy normal kids.... oh no hang on my PFB has Aspergers and ADHD too..... but he is very very very smart!
I dunno ....

I have three children. One was mostly FF and some BF from birth. She's tall, skinny, fit and is doing well in school. Decent grades etc.
Middle child was BFed until 2 without a single drop of formula. She's a healthy weight (not skinny nor chubby at all) but short and is doing really well in school. Better than her sister. She concentrates well, manages all the work without any issue.
DS was only BF until 6/7 months and then FF. he's tall, fit, a great weight. Academically? Meh. Nothing much yet but it's early and he's the type to do sweet FA then excel as if he's been doing it for ages. So all three kids fed differently and not one way turned out results better than the other. They have never seen a doctor/nurse except for vaccinations. Health wise, none of them really get poorly and on the very, very rare occasion they do? It's a few hours at most.

There isn't a definite good or bad when it comes to feeding kids boob or bottle, and whilst I do believe that breast is more beneficial in many ways (such as passing on antibodies when the kid or mum is ill etc) , formula isn't the devil either.

In comparison to friend's FFed kids, mine (who had most breastmilk) get sick far less. That's pretty much the biggest difference. Could be completely coincidental though.

I think from a certain point the benefits become more focused on health. Lower chance of certain cancers for the mother and lower chances of obesity in later life for the child I think?

I don't think you could look at a set of GCSE/A Level/University results and say "those children were breastfed, these were formula fed". I mean, you could, but chances are you'd be wrong

Breastfeeding matters for many more reasons than simply "Are breastfed babies smarter as adults than formula fed babies?". The importance of breastfeeding is based on more factors than simply the outcome for the baby.

There are lots of studies that point to correlation between between being BF and having better health outcomes at various stages.

But I think once you strip out the socio-economic factors (because BFing is much more likely to mean middle class), the impact is much much less.
There was a study years ago looking at the differences between FF and BF siblings that my friend took part in and it concluded there wasn't a statistically significant difference when they are raised in the same home environment. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5398738.stm

But it is such a loaded subject area that very few researchers are going to bother with doing much more research, especially as the WHO funding model would potentially punish them for future studies on different subjects if they authored a study with an anti-BF conclusion

thelancet.com/series/breastfeeding

Anecdote is just that, anecdote. As many others have already done so, there is a wealth of high quality evidence out there, based on POPULATIONS rather than individual stories.

There's many many more outcomes of interests other than coughs and colds.