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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

Friend says she heard on the news that bf babies are apparently LESS intelligent than ff

33 replies

Pesha · 06/02/2008 14:03

She has bf all hers (6 soon to be 7!) so it wasnt an anti-bf comment. We were discussing extended bfing as something we're both keen on but she mentioned that she had heard on the news that bf babies were apparently less intelligent than ff babies.

I have googled and cant find anything apart from some reports from over a year ago saying that it makes no difference, its just down to the mother's intelligence.

Has there been a new report somewhere that I've missed?

OP posts:

llareggub · 06/02/2008 14:07

Good job I hedged my bets and am still mix feeding at 15 months...[GRIN]

tiktok · 06/02/2008 14:35

Wow - how wrong can someone be!

The more recent report news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7075511.stm showed that 9 out of 10 babies have a gene that links with bf to make them more intelligent, quite independent of parents' IQ.

Original poster

Pesha · 07/02/2008 22:43

Thanks Tiktok, I remember that now.

Not quite sure what she heard on the news then as she said it was quite recently but will aks her again next time I see her and tell her whatever it was it was wrong!!

OP posts:

moondog · 07/02/2008 22:44

rofl.
Summat sinsiter put out by Cow & Gate no doubt!

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 07/02/2008 22:48

TikTok

Thanks for that.......

Huge comfort to those of us who had to formula feed, when their heart failed.

MommaFeelgood · 07/02/2008 22:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

tiktok · 07/02/2008 23:22

Bree - what are you suggesting I should have said? Told Pesha her friend was right? Not said anything?

Anyone who 'knows' me on here I am aware of the sadness experienced by people who wanted to bf and didn't for whatever reason.

But that doesn't extend to me pretending it doesn't make a difference whether a baby is formula fed or breastfed.

chipmonkey · 08/02/2008 00:03

Oh, come on, Bree! IIRC the difference is 7 points in IQ, not 50! If it makes any difference at all to your gorgeous ds, it might mean that he has to spend 10 minutes more a night on his maths than he would have done, had you been able to bf. Better studying Maths than out chasing girls, IMO

littlelapin · 08/02/2008 00:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

verylittlecarrot · 08/02/2008 00:27

pankhurst · 08/02/2008 00:40

Shizaru · 08/02/2008 00:49

LGJ

I know that you know deep down that Tiktok is very sensitive wrt to these things.

You also know what a bright, brilliant DS you have. Clearly that's down to you and your nurturing. You've done your absolute best for that boy and it shows. He's ace.

smallwhitecat · 08/02/2008 09:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

workstostaysane · 08/02/2008 09:17

bless.
wrong wrong wrong.

tiktok · 08/02/2008 11:31

Bree - should I hold my breath waiting for you to aplogise for your comment??

Or just put it behind me....

MommaFeelgood · 08/02/2008 13:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Lulumama · 08/02/2008 13:36

surely there are so many variables though... but you know

i think that pretty much everyone knows that breast feeding is better for a myriad of reasons, as a bottle feeder, i sometimes get a pang of about this sort of thing but what is done,is done.

workstostaysane · 08/02/2008 13:39

oh, i meant wrong that ffs are more intelligent than bfs.
sorry, answered in haste cos the OP made me smile. in a good mood today as i intend to home ed and the reports out today say that home ed kids perform better than their schooled counterparts, emotionally as well as scholastically.
i get a lot of grief about choosing to home ed so am really happy to have some nice official stats to quote in response.

AND the sun is shining.

chunkypudding · 08/02/2008 14:09

in real life rather than statistics I think a whole bunch of other factors come into play.

I was bf my partner ff, we both did the same degree, got same result, even used to get exact same essay scores (and no we didn't work together, didn't know each other then & were opposite ends of the country.)

genetics, nurturing, oooh and education (he def went to a 'better' school than me) all play a part.

am bf myself as it seems to be working for me (though I really hate it sometimes, its not that easy!) BUT I think that the love and care you give your child, and making sure they don't go hungry, is INFINITELY more important than how this is acheived, boob or bottle.

And yes, the sun is shining so lets keep being lovely and supportive of each other...

and anyone that wants to advise on whether my baby's white tongue means thrush... that would be great

chunkypudding · 08/02/2008 14:11

am not actually bf myself, that would be weird... am bf my ds is what I meant to say

beachlover · 08/02/2008 16:39

bree, don't think there was any need for that. tiktoc is only sharing information and as she says, what should she do, pretend there are no benefits to bf?

how would that really help any of us

i think you should apolagise tbh

chipmonkey · 08/02/2008 21:49

chunky, I treated poor ds2 for WEEKS for thrush because he had a white tongue! It turned out it was..............milk!!!!! The GP had diagnosed thrush but the paed pointed out that it was only on his tongue, not on his cheeks or gums. Also white patches from thrush can bleed when rubbed which doesn't obviously happen with milk!

MommaFeelgood · 09/02/2008 11:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

oilandwater · 09/02/2008 14:01

I do not think Bree's comment was egregious enough to warrant multiple people telling her to apologise, either standing alone or in context.

First off, I agree that people should not be censored from discussing a reported correlation between bf/ff and IQ because it might make women who formula-fed their babies feel bad.

However, when I read the remark "Wow - how wrong can someone be! [that bf babies were apparently less intelligent than ff babies]" I also was taken aback. I think it's the emphatic quality of the statement that rubbed Bree (and me, and maybe others) the wrong way, as if it's saying "OBVIOUSLY ff babies are less intelligent." I highly doubt that Tiktok intended her remark to be interpreted like that, but I'm not surprised that it seems to have been taken the wrong way.

vInTaGeVioLeT · 09/02/2008 14:24

[quietly steps away from yet another b/f versus f/f thread]

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