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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

I hardly dare to post this... but it said in the paper today that breastfed babies...

182 replies

emkana · 01/11/2006 19:45

are more likely to grow into happy adults.

It made me feel happy because I have a very poorly ds who has lots of health problems and I thought to myself "At least he is breastfeeding and I so hope it will help him in some way as he grows up."

And that's the spirit that this is intended in, so please don't jump on me!

OP posts:
tamum · 01/11/2006 20:28

Of course they took other factors into account and controlled for them, how on earth could anything be published otherwise? How can anyone read emkana's post of 8,23 and still carp about this thread?

buktus · 01/11/2006 20:30

you shouldnt feel like you have to explain yourself, if b/f pisses those mn off why do they bother opening the thread in the first place, its beyond me. It is only natural for a mother to want to do every single thing possible to nurture their child in the best way possible and i am not saying if you have f/f you have failed in this practice

NothingButAttitudeOnMN · 01/11/2006 20:31

and if the children are still only 16, then it is obviuously all lies because no 16 year old teenager can be classed as happy

Still think it's a pile of almost like saying if you are 5 veg a day as a child you would be a happier adult. Yes their is no doubt in my mind that 5 veg/fruit a day is better for you than anything else but could it really be proved to make you a happier adult, I fucking doubt it.

ShinyHappyRocketsGoingBANG · 01/11/2006 20:31

OFGS. People with issues about having not breastfed for whatever reason.. or not breastfed for as long as they would have liked etc etc.. or just stubbornly refuse to entertain the idea that breast might be best regardless of the what they did or didn't do.... how about you try to keep your paranoia about it off this one thread and let Emkana enjoy her happy feeling that she is able to do the best she can for her DS who she has had good reason to worry and worry and worry about since long before his birth?

My DS has a whole medical encyclopedia of health problems and disability and is highly unlikely to ever lead any kind of independent life when he is an adult... so I too will allow myself a smile of pure happiness that I managed to breast feed him despite everything for the first two years of his life. Whether it helps make him a happier adult or not I'm glad I did it.. because happiness is all I can hope for, for him anyway.

northerner · 01/11/2006 20:33

Ok, just read link. They've only conducted it over 16 years though and from that they conclude that those breastfed for 6 months or more are less pron eto mental illness.

So the formula thread 16 year olds display signs of mental illness at 16 do they? Hmmm. interesting.

Tamum - not at all carping about this thread. If Emkana feels good for breastfeeding her son, then great. Of course she should. It's the best thing she can do.

But we're all allowed to question medical 'research' are we not?

SaintHunkerOfMunker · 01/11/2006 20:33

LGJ, stop it now. Your DS, as I've said before, is far better having his warm, loving, living mother than a cold grave to tend. It matters not a jot how you fed him - you have given him the best start in life by being alive. He is fabulous, fantastic and fecking feisty to boot - he takes after his wonderful mother.

Emkana, I'm glad you feel better about DS after reading this. You are giving him the very best start in life - in a different way from LGJ did with her DS, because your circumstances are different.

Love and rose petals
Saint Hunker

ShinyHappyRocketsGoingBANG · 01/11/2006 20:35

They would be at least 17 because most people don't give their babies cows milk until they are at least a year...

buktus · 01/11/2006 20:35

attitude you obviously b/f then lol

tamum · 01/11/2006 20:37

It's right and good that medical research should be questioned, but I would say a) it's worth reading the link first and b) people just going on about what bollocks it is because it doesn't fit with their experience is not meaningful criticism.

ShinyHappyRocketsGoingBANG · 01/11/2006 20:38

LOL @ Hunker

I couldn't/didn't peservere with breast feeding my first and it definitely would have been the best thing for him as he turned out to have CF.. but it's not worth torturing myself over. What's done is done and looking back I was far too inexperienced and stressed and professionally unsupported to persevere anyway.. so in that respect the bottle was best. It's just not black and white.

WaitingForGodKnows · 01/11/2006 20:46

I think the fact that the title of this thread begins with 'I hardly dare to post this...' says it all, really.

SherlockLGJ · 01/11/2006 20:49

@ Hunker

Actually I came back to make a semi - apology, I am tired this evening and I allowed this to get to me. And by default I was sarkier than I should have been, in fact I should have kept on surfing.

But I still maintain that surveys of that nature are divisive.

I am going now.

NothingButAttitudeOnMN · 01/11/2006 20:50

I breast fed and then stopped when I wanted to.

I have no issues at all over breast feeding and happily support all mothers wanting to breast feed as it is fantastic

but

I always hate this type of research and I would have come on here and said the exact same thing regardless of what it was.

StFillydiaofJonkton · 01/11/2006 20:52

I was breast and bottle fed and sometimes I'm miserable and sometimes I'm not

And if that doesn't prove it, nothing will

RobertCatesby · 01/11/2006 20:53

must be in line for quote of the week filly

staceym11 · 01/11/2006 20:54

i think a lot of the correlation in these studies is the different 'types' of people who bring the babies into the world. it has been suggested that more 'intelligent' women will breastfeed so may make less screwups in their kids lives causing them to be happier.

having said that i didnt breastfeed dd and dont feel like i need to justify my reasons or my intelligence.

but good for you emkana, if this little nugget makes you feel happy then stick with it, we all need to find comfort where we can!

harpsichordsgoingBANGandWHOOSH · 01/11/2006 20:54

why do you hate this type of research, though?
what sort of research?
research into the effects of bf?
why?
is it the nature of the research or the findings you object to?
if the research findings were neutral or in favour of ff, would that make a difference?

nolembit · 01/11/2006 21:06

Our local policeman came to give a talk re. the new car seat regulations to our local mums group and told us that police statistics show that breastfed babies are less likely to commit crimes. He then said that was due to breastfed babies feeling more nurtured and that their mothers were more likely to regulate their childrens behaviour. Everyone went quiet as half of us breastfed while the other half didn't, going to show that mothers who do and don't breastfeed are equally able to hold their tongue in the name of good manners.

ShinyHappyRocketsGoingBANG · 01/11/2006 21:09

Not on MN they don't.. good manners never seem to come into it.. people just let rip because they are safely tucked away behind their computer screens and seem not to worry about the havoc that can be wreaked by words on a screen (which applies to many threads, not particularly this one..)

Socci · 01/11/2006 21:10

Message withdrawn

oranges · 01/11/2006 21:12

while staying out of the debate - LOVE the idea of a baby in a stripy baby gro and mask, breaking into a house and making off with all the bottles and formula.

staceym11 · 01/11/2006 21:15

oranges-on that note my mate was looking for a babygro she'd once seen in her youth while she was pg, it was black and white stripped with the words 'Been inside for 9 months' printed on the front! i really want one too, how cute! lol

LaDiDaDi · 01/11/2006 21:15

Emkana, from what I have read of your posts I'm sure that if you had ff your ds would grow into a happy adult because you come across as being a very caring mum.

hub2dee · 01/11/2006 21:15

I've just spent a bloomin age trying to google Oddy's research, which is indexed here . This claimed improvement in mental health is not headlined in any of these articles as far as I can see. Interestingly, in one dealing with cognitive development, they cover their ass thus:

"Interactions between maternal education (four levels) and breast feeding demonstrated a positive association of maternal education on verbal IQ (F = 2.64; P = 0.005) in children breast fed for longer but not on performance (F = 0.74; P = 0.67). The early introduction of milk other than breast milk was associated with reduced verbal IQ after adjustment for social and perinatal confounders. Although these effects were interacting with maternal education, they may act through undefined mechanisms in human milk." (Source . [my emphasis].

Yes they may, and they also may not.

The numbers of children developing mental health issues by 2 must surely be teensy tiny in a population study of 2500, no ?

I'm just not convinced the mentioned study (which also isn't on the Telethon Institute's site outside of a press release which Emkana's linked text is) is very vigorous as it is damned hard to isolate / attribute causal factors of mental health / illness.

ShinyHappyRocketsGoingBANG · 01/11/2006 21:17

Hub you are so thorough and sort of obsessed. It's sweet.

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