bf in the news again, for increasing intelligence

[robinredbreast]

so far its been on bbc1
radio 1
yahoo homepage

three cheers for breast feeding

also i thought alison baum who was interview on bbc1 put the message across so well, so tactfully done

well done alison,ive already signed your bf manifesto

nelly, no one is suggesting mothers who don't want to breastfeed should be made to do so. No one is suggesting you or your child are anything less than a genius - but with an extra 7 points in IQ maybe you could have got another PhD, who knows? Maybe your child would be 'the brightest' instead of 'one of the brightest'.

7 points at the higher end of the IQ spectrum makes no real public health difference. 130 or 140 IQ points - who's counting at that stage?

But to the majority of people round about the middle, it might make the difference - and at the lower end, it might make a difference between someone being able to live independently and someone who needed more care.

This is a public health issue, and it is up to society to make it possible for all mothers who want to breastfeed to do so. If breastfeeding is 'agonising', then there is almost always something that can be fixed.

My dad emailed me and said he knows the people who made this claim, he has worked with them for many years. He says that they are very good and to be trusted.
I suppose I should believe him as he is generally very dismissive of these 'claims'.

I do think that these reports are generally very unhelpful though and only serve to make some people feel shite and inadequate.

My dad said I should feel good about myself for bf my 6 kids. I don't really. I don't feel anything in particular. I just fed them, like every mother does.
I certainly don't need a 'study' to make me feel better, just like I take no notice of crappy studies telling me not to eat bacon, drink, breathe and generally enopy myself. I think I'd rather die early than live by their 'rules'.

how can a report confirming what we all instinctively know to be true, that milk produced by a child's mother is superior to denatured cow powder, be unhelpful? it's just true or not true, it's not about the people receiving the news at the end of it. i mix fed ffed after trying to bf, it doesn't mean i lost my marbles as well. if i felt shite it was because of the facts, not the reports.

I think they are only going to be helpful if they cause a woman to opt for bf rather than ff beacause she has read the report. I can't imagine that that will happen very much. Most of the time I should think they make women who ff feel somewhat crappy.

I think to suggest that whether a mother bf or ff hr baby is a simple "choice" is a vast oversimplification tbh.
some women can and do make a straight choice, but for the majority their choice is all about their circumstances, the support they get, the culture they live in, their family's attitude, their partner's attitude, their own personal experiences and a multitude of other factors.

MrsSlocomb it is always good to know the truth though, isn't it?
if we know that hacving a C-section reduces your chances of conceiving, then besy to report that so that women can know that and make informed decisions.
we woudln't supress those findings in case it made women who have had a C-section feel bad.

I suppose that's true harpsi. I am pro breastfeeding. I suppose I just get tired of these 'reports' it seems there is a new one veryday

Public health issue: I'm not convinced. I think breast/bottle is just something that people get in a stew about. I'm not even convinced that bf makes any difference whatsoever to intellect. I fear these kinds of studies are conceived in order to give academics something to do! (And yes, I was an academic Before Children...). On a similar note, I'm not convinced by the 'no alcohol' study, either...

nelly, you are talking shite, sorry.....I have heard some arguments against breastfeeding studies, but yours is the very weakest. Those extra 7 points you're missing could have helped you construct something better than that

I'm fed up with these reports - I bf for 6 weeks and (without going into the reasons) had no choice but to ff. I felt and was made to feel completely inadequate at the time. I think whatever way works best for mum and baby is the best way.

ruba, what is the best way of not making ff mothers feel inadequate ...horrible feeling and there is no justification for making you feel like that ....and how can mothers be informed if reports like this are not published?

Genuine question.

I'm fed up with all these reports about fruit and vegetables being good for you. I find it very difficult to get my children to eat their "Five a day" and it makes me feel inadequate and guilty when they don't. But I can't argue with the fact that fruit and veg are good for you so I guess I'll just have to live with it

This study is very good news for bf'ers, (and probably good news for future ff'ers too as presumably it will help formula companies produce a better imitation.)

It seems to directly contradict a study published just over a year ago. This showed that women with higher iq's were much more likely to breastfeed, and that this accounted for the difference in iq's between breastfed and non-breastfed children. In other words iq was largely a matter of heredity, and this was corroborated by comparing breastfed and non-breastfed siblings - see [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7575/945 here].

As far as I understand it, the new study has been rigorous in filtering out the maternal intelligence factor, and has actually shown the mechanism by which breastfeeding increases iq. So this must mean that the 2006 study was pretty flawed.

Sorry this is very longwinded and geeky, but is there anyone with scientific knowledge (like welliemum and tamum) who can explain how the two studies might have ended up with such different results? Did the new study refer in any way to the 2006 one?

I have just finished bf no 4 and feel awful about it. Have 4 under 6 and hubbie and I have decided that is it so have spent few days crying that I will never do it again. BF others for nearly a year but youngest just didn't put the weight on so I took HV adviced and 'toped up' this put baby right off me but she thrived straight away. She is only 6mths but I feel you have to do what's right for you. BFing is hard to start and no-one should feel guilty about doing either.

Thing is, I think people confuse two totally separate issues here:

1. Scientific reports on breast milk
2. Support they get from HVs/HPs on breastfeeding.

Of course no-one should be made to feel crap because they can't/don't want to bf. But the answer to that isn't to suppress scientific facts, the answer is to give better and more sensitive feeding support.

Scientists don't choose what to study on the basis of whether it will make mums feel crap or not. They study the statistics and report their conclusions. I bf, but if found out tomorrow that there was some disadvantageous aspect to bfing I would still want to know about it, so I could make the most informed choice for my child.

TYV I think you are right,
but the two are connected. there is this horrible disconnect between the immense pressure on women to bf (because of the myriad health benefits) and the messed up culture that puts so many obstacles in their way.
women are not properly supported after giving birth. full stop. women shoul dbe looked after, fully looked after and should stay in bed and we should run round after them for the first month until feeding is established.

Harpsi, of course you are right, we can't help but connect them in reality. But I think it's sad that so many posters have posted saying "I wish this report hadn't been published" rather than, "I wish I'd had better support/felt better about my decision".

Hm...it's not the first time that this has been reported and it won't be the last time...but I think, and we have talked about it many times before on mn, I suppose, that there is a possibility that the people that are better educated are more likely to choose to breastfeed, aswell, as, possibly live in better areas and therefore possibly receive better support with breastfeeding...

But really I think aitch said it so well!

3andnomore - are you talking about the 2006 study I referred to in my message (which I didn't quite manage to put the link in for)?

kittock, not sure...but I know that this issue has been raised a fair few times in the past...as in, raised as an issue in the news, etc...
but yes, I think I remember there was a study that actually looked into those underlying issues, aswell...

Well, lacking those extra seven points may have made me extraordinarily unable to construct a compelling argument, but at least they haven't made me extraordinarily rude!

I stand by it: whether you bottle-feed or breast-feed is nobody else's business, and your baby is very likely to thrive and pass 700 GCSEs regardless of your feeding methods. Why do people have to beat themselves up over this? If you believe every report you read, you'd never eat or drink anything - not to mention go anywhere (sun exposure = skin cancer; not enough sun = vitamin D deficiency and so on...).

Nelly, but you are intelligent, and so possibly were your parents and so on, so your children have a chance of being intelligent, too...

no one is saying if you bottlefeed your child will be stupid....(saying that have not read every post that closesly, but assuming no one has implied that)
Also, who is being rude? ( Sorry, I am thick and was bottlefed....but don't think there is any correlation(sp) in that....)

PS While we're at it: Not only was I formula-fed, and not only did I formula feed - but my children and were are also all summer babies. So we are evidently condemned to idiocy on all counts...

Who on earth comes up with these ideas?!