Were you formula fed as a baby?

[Janni]

Do you believe you would be healthier or more intelligent had you been breastfed?

Do you believe you were disadvantaged in any other way by being formula fed?

I was not breastfed.

I breastfed my own children for 20 months.

I realise though that I do not feel in any way disadvantaged for not having been breastfed myself.

I just wondered how others felt.

thank you duchess

was not bf but HAVE bf both my kids and will attempt to again this time

health/attitude/intelligence is an indicator or more factors than whether or not a person is bf or not but thats what THIS particular thread was about

end of

Sabire -- what I find bizarre is your seeming inability to accept that people are interested in speaking about their personal experiences, anecdotal as they may be. The vast majority of these posterss do not attempt to draw any conclusion of whether their health problems or lack thereof are due to how they were fed as infants. These posters are not scientists, or nutritionists, or doctors or midwives and they are not using the data here to produce a peer-reviewed research study. They are not obliged to withhold sharing their experiences because they deviate from the norm and I hope that your repeated attempts to quash this discussion will continue to prove unsuccessful.

To add to the novel:

I bf all four DB into toddlerhood. That may not be clear in the first post.

I am not sure that the OP wanted a comment about how intelligent this generation of BF babies are but I am nearly in tears thinking about the implications.

I am sure that there are as many gifted and talented children that were FF as BF.

I lack the courage (even on MN) to get into a discussion about the challenges faced by my so I shall be thankful to have raised their IQs by 6 % then shall I?

I fully agree that no anecdotal evidence shall make me complacent about any aspect of my parenting but I do find it exhausting to have anyone suggest that having breast fed my children puts them at an advantage.

I would tend to agree with you there, Sabire!

Sorry... My typos probably have outed me as a FF thicko!

Sorry BF toddler in my lap.

Flat world? Perhaps.

Flat computer monitor instead or real life? For sure. Best form of escapism for my ex-pat life.

Oilandwater: Very eloquent. The OP asked a question that MNers have happily answered (albeit long-windedly in my case).

This is not Sciencenet.

"Please can everyone stop talking about their educational qualifications as though it somehow proves or disproves the claims that IQ is boosted by breastmilk.

It's embarrassing.

Makes you seem a bit.... thick.

Sorry."

But Sabire people are only answering the questions posed in the OP. Why is that a problem to you?

It's bizarre because everyone is mentioning their level of education in relation to whether they were formula fed or breastfed.

What's the relevance?

I can only assume it's because they think that there's some link, when actually there isn't, because breastfeeding only increases IQ by about 6 points.

Why else would people keep mentioning it?

And I've been a bit arsey on this thread because this discussion seems driven by a complete misunderstanding of what the research on infant feeding actually says about intelligence, asthma, excema, gastric illness and diabetes etc and their link with infant feeding.

I actually think threads like this perpetuate myths and misunderstandings about the health benefits of breastfeeding, rather than clearing them up.

But I suppose if the point of the thread is to make people feel better about their feeding choices then maybe I shouldn't object - even if it is at the cost of our understanding the underpinning facts.

Yes, I was ff after the first two weeks, apparently. This was the late 70's, the days of scheduled and timed feeding, so no wonder it didn't work out.

And I'm okay:

I do struggle sometimes with complex scientific or philosophical concepts and arguments - feels a bit like trying to hold onto sand - but if I read things two or three times and really try hard to understand, I'm fine.

I am allergic to pollen and dust and most perfume. But with the help of Piriton, I'm fine.

I have struggled with my weight since my chubby childhood. But with willpower and carefully watching my diet, I'm fine.

I suffered childhood asthma dreadfully which affected my ability with physical activity and even led to me being physically and verbally bullied at school (think "Lord of the Flies"!) but as an adult I don't need to play sports and after hard work (and assertiveness training) my self-esteem is much better.

And anyway, I might have all the above even if my mother had had support and therefore I had been breastfed for longer (although that would have lessened the risks).

But I'm fine, after all.

Even if I wasn't, my mother would have no need to feel guilty!

I hate this guilt thing that's brought up, and it's often brought up as a reason to hide the truth about the risks of formula.

Why feel guilty when you didn't have the right support to breastfeed, or you didn't know the truth about the risks of formula at the time, or you were in a culture that did not value breastfeeding, or made public breastfeeding unfeasable for you, or you were unable to breastfeed full stop, or you were in a society that does not value human milk for human babies and therefore does not set up a milk bank service for mothers / babies who can't breastfeed, like it has a blood bank service?

I wouldn't feel guilty (and don't, about the first two days when I couldn't get support to bf / express and ds had formula) but I would (and do) feel angry. I'd like to think though, that I'd direct this anger at the formula industry rather than those who were simply giving out the facts.

I was ff, consider myself to have been a healthy child and adult.. as for intelligence, I can't answer as I feel my schooling had more to do with how I was able or not to develop rather than how I was fed.
What about academic intelligence and social intelligence they can differ in people too.

My brother was bf, not such a healthy individual but intelligence he does not lack.

Sister ff, very healthy and average in intelligence.

From my friends those who are the most intelligent were ff.. I thought the bf and intelligence levels were related to if there was a gene present? (from what my baby brain can remember from the news in the past?)

Sabire,

I really appreciate your contribution to this discussion: you have provided the voice of reason and science and balanced veiwpoints and what you have said needed to be said.

But I have also really enjoyed everyone else's anecdotes and I think they are all interesting and valid.

So, I don't think the thread is pointless, I think it's great, and I also totally value your contribution.

Hurrah for interesting, controversial discussions that stay just on the right side of kicking off!

And I'll let you know if my mixed-fed 2 year-old gets a degree

Great thread, I'm really enjoying it.

Sabire - I have to really wonder at your comparison between formula feeding and smoking!! There is no way on earth I would ever ask people to excuse a pregnant woman smoking - the idea is truly bizarre.

Do you know this thread just makes me feel bad for all those women who were actively discouraged from breastfeeding for all those years. What must they think now given the breast is best message being everywhere & for many of them watching their dd/dil BF when they were pretty much denied the option?

My mum BF us all for 18 months in the 70's. She tells me that the hospital I (eldest) was born in in Oxford was very very pro BF & unusual for its time. She moved before having my brothers & was shocked at the attitude in the new area. As she already knew what she was doing she ignored them - a lesson many of us also have had unfortunately to learn about HCP today.

I agree - I know my MIL felt very wistful watching me feed her grandsons as I'm sure she would have liked to breastfeed had she been encouraged.

My mother on the other hand found the whole thing a little distateful, I think and definitely couldn't understand why I allowed myself to be so tied to the babies.

I've never asked my mother about breastfeeding (she lives overseas), but I expect we all went straight to formula. Certainly, she never breastfed my younger sister because I would have remembered (she's 6 years younger than me). She once said that 'too much is made of breastfeeding these days' when my sister was having problems.

My MIL says that she didn't have enough milk, but she stopped within a week, so didn't give it much of a chance. It sounds like lots of women in the 1960s thought they didn't have enough milk. My friend's mother thought she didn't have enough milk because her newborn couldn't go 4 hours between feeds. DH's aunt stopped at 10 days because she thought she didn't have enough milk for her 10lb baby.

I think this thread is interesting because of what happened to some of the mums (especially the milk drying tablets given automatically) and how anti-breastfeeding it all was in the 1960s and 1970s.

God I wonder what was in those 'milk drying up' tablets?

i was ff, so were all my sisters
i have a degree
straight As
no allergies
very healthy.

i only hope my children, who were bf, can say the same.

oh, and a size 10.

Do we need to suggest a new abbreviation for MN:

BF= breast fed
FF= formula fed
CMF =carnation milk fed.

Carnation milk seems to have been a significant supplement to young babies in the 60's and 70's

I was bf for about 4-5 mo I think and then onto cows' milk when I was weaned. My Mum actually boasts that she had no idea how to make formula milk until my dd was born.

My Nan was fed on formula milk since her mother died shortly after birth. I imagine her intelligence would have suffered even more had she not been fed at all . I can only guess it hadn't been an option to find a wet-nurse for her.

yes.was prem and in scbu for months.

There's a shock - the usual suspect on the 'but i'm using stats and so not being insulting or unreasonable' rampage again.

6 points difference on your IQ will mean having one at 124 vs 130. Both these levels of IQ are fully able to go to uni and get a decent result.

likewise 115 vs 109. no big deal.

where IQ really can affect people's cognition are on people who are nearing the lower bordera of average and below average. 6 points can mean a lot to a person's ability to live independently or not.

So these are the babies where bf vs ff really really impact on outcomes.

So you can say, yes, me, I am alright. So are all my kids, etc, etc. I don't have to care about anyone else as long as we are all right. Good for you if you are happy to stay inside this comfort zone. Let's hope that you and yours continue to be so fortunate.

My mum bf me for 6 weeks and then bf my younger sister for 7 mths. Can safely say that sister and I have roughly the same level of (un) intelligence . Having said that our skills lie in very different areas.

Funnily enough, she has terrible allergies whereas I have none...

I bf ds for a year. Was a very healthy for the first 3 years - almost no illnesses, but he is now showing very strong symptoms of hayfever this spring - but that is on another thread...