Breastfeeding protective against Autism

[womblesofwestminster]

What do you guys make of this news:

"Breastfed children have higher oxytocin levels, boosting their chances of evading Autism. Medical researchers have further confirmed that breastfeeding significantly strengthens the nervous system of both the child and its mother."

www.ameinfo.com/blog/automotive/sharjah-baby-friendly-emirate-campaign/uaes-first-ever-session-on-reducing-autism-cases-via-breastfeeding-shifts-autism-fight-from-therapy-to-prevention/

'StarlightMcKingsThree I agree. Surely, this info is important to share. Would MN really delete it?'

Why is it important to share, and importantly, why is important to share here with mothers who may or may not have breastfed but most certainly can do nothing about it now?

Starlight dd2 was also showing signs of autism at six weeks .i want to clarify I think breast feeding is great I won't bore everyone with why I ff my second dcs after disaster with dd1 however I feel very sensitive about being told I may have caused autism in two of my three dcs

Why aren't you posting in the feeding section? Most of our children are far to old for formula or breast?

If there is a genetic link to autism, so that those with the same genes are predisposed to develop autism, then surely parents of autistic children should be informed for future siblings' sake?

Please go and post in feeding or pregnancy I really ,really don't need this today

"then surely parents of autistic children should be informed for future siblings' sake?"

there's the blame, right there

sorry pressed 'post' too soon

and that's why you shouldn't be posting this here

"then surely parents of autistic children should be informed for future siblings' sake?"

Why? What do you think is wrong with having autism anyway?

Piss off!

Star and zzzz well put !

breast feeding for 12months didn't stop my ds2 from being/becoming autistic it just another load of crap to make mothers feel guilty.
why even post it ?

I was at dd2s Christmas concert today I'm sure none of the parents there would have wanted to have been warned about their choldren

I have reported this thread. I dont think its in good taste to post this here. All it will do is induce guilt to people who have enough on thier plate.

FWIW I BF DS until 9 months when he wouldnt eat or drink anything else.

It sounds like nonsense to me. Even if there is a statistical correlation between autism and a certain method of feeding, it doesn't mean the one thing caused the other. For example, maybe mothers with autistic traits (who are more likely to have a child with the same) are less likely to breastfeed, perhaps due to sensory issues ? Or maybe autistic children might have more difficulty with feeding as babies? All kinds of possible reasons there might be a link (if there even is, I wouldn't assume it based on one random blog post).

I agree with Star and zzzz too. Autism isn't some terrible disease or shameful affliction. It can certainly make life more difficult in many ways for the autistic person and their family (though a fair amount of that is down to intolerance and lack of reasonable accommodation by others), and that shouldn't be downplayed, but that's not to say autistic people should be 'cured' or eradicated 'prevented' from existing. It's not like having cancer or something. There are lots of positives too. There's more than one valid way of being.

My DS will be 18 in Spring...he's firmly of the opinion that being autistic is superior, that the world would be a much better, more logical place if everyone was autistic and that inventions would be much more advanced, the space programme would be going strong, though perhaps there would be less parties...

I'm not so sure he's wrong tbh, lol.

And? The parents would choose to do what? Not have any more children?

I clicked some of your 'research' links too, OP. Two of them are articles in 'Medical Hypotheses.' As the name suggests, this is a journal specifically intended for debate and speculation around observations and hypotheses which do not have evidence to support them yet. It does not publish the results of studies or clinical trials. These speculations (while sometimes interesting) are certainly not intended to inform public health advice or clinical practice.

Two of the others don't really seem to be about autism at all (though I can't read the full text of the one in Polish ). The paper in Nutrition is more interesting, but the authors note in their conclusion that the study is limited by lack of data about formula use.

I'm not sure you are entirely familiar with how to do a systematic literature review (it's not just doing a keyword search in Pubmed and cherry-picking the results you like the look of) or that you have read and understood the papers you're referencing.

I also have no idea why you'd post this in the Special Needs section, other than to push some anti-formula agenda or try to make mothers feel needlessly guilty.

Pile of shite! DS was EBFd for six months and was BF for a year, he's still autistic.
I can't imagine how crap I'd feel reading that if I'd FF, that's not on.

The reason why a person has autism is far deeper than whether the mum breastfeeds or not. I have autism and even though it makes life harder, I am proud of it. The reason behind it matters only a little. How I make people see that there is so many reason to be proud of it and how I show them how they can help us be more easily part of society is what concerns me, and that is very difficult to achieve.