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.

It seems to be that people just don;t know how to interpret stats RTP - and why would they?

A stat gives you an average. For example, some babies of smokers won't die of SIDS, but that doesn;t mean they aren't still at more at risk of dying from it.

MT- 6 IQ points is a pretty small difference to be picking up though. Especially if they've had to factor out socio-economic factors. I'm fairly sure the stats would be open to various interpretations because those sorts of studies always are. A difference of 6 IQ points is going to make no difference to life success.

I meant your post further down rather than your last one. I'm not decided on that one yet

Other factors play a role as well.

Yes.
I agree.

I just don't understand why people cherry pick the factors they are going to bother with.

I also don't understand why people don't accept that you can eliminate the effect of those other factors if you construct the study properly.

I was mixed fed (greedy little badger) and because my mum didn't have much milk left after I was taken away every night to a nursery...

My DB1 was completely BF, DSis1 also completely BF until she died aged 6 weeks of pneumonia. Mum lost a bit of confidence after that and FF'd both Dsis2 and DB2. DB1 has had some fairly serious illnesses but the rest of us are alarmingly healthy. DBs are probably the cleverest but not by much not that it means much anyway.

Mum said she couldn't cope with BFing the younger two because she had to know how much they were eating so that she could get medical help quickly in case anything went wrong. I think this did have an influence on how I felt about struggling with BFing DD which I found very difficult and I ended up mixed feeding (BF then FF at every feed) from about 4 weeks.

I'm confused VVQ. Must need those 6 IQ points

Sabite, you keep saying the 'vast majority' of babies who are fed on formula are healthy - I don't think we know this, any more than we know that the 'vast majority' of breastfed babies are healthy.

It's too sweeping.

Who cherry picks factors they aren't going to bother with?

I think madamez has got a point.

RevertThePolarity, I cannot take credit for Sabire's post. I was just quoting her. But I agree with her (and you).

I like this thread!

I was FF and perfectly healthy and intelligent. I have a job people envy and I love (has a bachelor and masters degree) and never had a hospital stay (except when I was dropped on my head when the baby hammock I was in fell down!).

I fully intended to bf DS but only managed 4 weeks of exclusive bf and now he gets a couple of oz of EBM a day though I imagine that will stop when he is 6+ weeks (now 5+ weeks). I almost killed myself trying to bf. Had lots of problems and cried everyday for 2 weeks. MN has a lot of pro-BFers (fact). Another board I am on has a mixture of both and it's interesting the difference in the 'feel' of the boards! BUT I fully value everyone's opinions here.

What I do resent is being made to feel so guilty and also like a bad mother from hell for giving up bf-ing... It was that or my sanity. I am much happier now and so is DS. That's why I like this thread as bf is such an emotive topic and I am glad to hear of +ve FF stories.

Will I bf if I am able to? Without a doubt. But for me, it didn't work and I am sick of mothers like me being made to feel BAD and a FAILURE for being unable to bf.

Quite right too I meant this one. You keep posting just before me/after me which makes it confusing...I could be here all day saying "oh - not that one, this one" "no, I mean the one before I posted about the other one" [boggled]

By yurt1 on Wed 02-Apr-08 13:17:54
One theory about allergies/autoimmune conditions (rocketing rates of both) is that it's related to gut permeability. Breast feeding will affect that (healthier gut flora so gut less likely to be permeable).

But there are other environmental factors that could have a huge effect. Antibiotics being one example (never could work out whether ds3 was better off having my breastmilk whilst I had iv antibs- he did btw- or whether he would have been better with formula given that avoiding a leaky gut was important to me - we didn't manage it - he has one). Other examples will be post weaning diet, perhaps some vaccinations, some naturally acquired infections, some toxins etc etc etc.

Breastfeeding is one part of that. Worth looking at it as part of a whole.

Am I wrong or the majority of us here who survived ff have breasfed their children? So despite the anecdotes about our babyhood we are quite aware of the research that's been done in the last decades.
IQ is overrated btw

oh thank you VVVQ. I was rather proud of that one

Message withdrawn

and yes, I agree with Madamez about blaming the mothers...

my mum must have been a bit of a hippy as i was born at home and was bfed

i did have eczema as a baby though

yurt well I don't think "there are other factors" means "it is not completely clear"

there are a number of factors identified as being risk factors for increased risk of SIDS

bf seems to have a protective effect. putting babies on their backs ditton. they are both about as clear as each other, though the risk level is often difficult to pinpoint.

just because it is one factor among others does not distinguish it from other risk factors.

of course there are a number of factors that contribute to all outcomes. this is hardly revelatory news to any of us.

Erm I didn't suggest it was revelatory.

eek. The pedant in me wants to say that b/feeding doesnt have so much of a protective effect as formula feeding has a non-protecting effect since b/feeding is the 'control', if you will.

eek

Formula fed as a baby, problems finding a formula I didn't chiuck bak up apparently but mother couldn't/didn't want to breast feed.
Fairly high IQ - not genius but no epsilon.
Had chronic bronchitis/chest infections as a child but that's probably a side effect of living with three heavy smokers (mum, dad, nana) who used to close all doors in living roon, windows closed, heating on in winter and smoke for England [cough, splutter, hack]

"Antibiotics being one example"

I suspect that this will be something that will turn out to be much more important than we ever suspected.

Especially if routine testing for GBS is brought in here - it'll mean as many as 1 in 4 babies may end up getting a big dose of anti-b's at birth.........

That worries me a bit I have to say.

It would worry me too Sabire.

I was worried enough about the IV antibs I was on post birth (which were revolting) to consider whether I shouldn't breastfeed at all. It was something I just couldn't weigh up. So in the end I went with the breatfeeding (until it dried up so poor ds3 got a load of ab stuffed milk then formula). They were originally going to IV antib him too - was rather pleased they didn't.

That number will be an average too. I've no idea how 6 point difference would manifest itself.

Maybe it's like mean temperature changes - a 2 degree global rise doesn't seem like much but it would be catastropic - apparently..Bjorn Lomberg disagrees. That's my next book.

didn't say you did yurt1. I just think it is slightly muddy thinking to say "there are other factors so it isn't completely clear."

one will never be able to identify one particular factor, there will always be a number of contributory factors. that is not to say that one cannot be clear about what is or might be or is likely to be a contributory factor.