breastfed babies result in better behaved children?

[indy and lara]

I don't think that anyone is claiming the breastmilk is the holy grail of health. Emma's reflux was caused due to her prematurity. Not everything was quite developed when she was born and she outgrew it with age. BF or FF would have made no difference and I would have imagined that was the same with most 'physical' problems. Things like dyslexia are not going to be changed by a feeding method. I have allergies and bowel problems and I was FF but I don't think that my health problems solely result from the way I was fed as a baby.

I don't think anyone here, or the study, was saying that a FF LO would not have met milestones, etc. It is about whether or not BF can add something else something that FF does not add.

 

[sophxx]

But no one will ever know weather it can unless you take to baby's with exact sane DNA/ colones and feed them one ff and one bf which they can't do! X

 

[LeeBee]

But no one will ever know weather it can unless you take to baby's with exact sane DNA/ colones and feed them one ff and one bf which they can't do! X

I wonder if it would work with twins... bf one and ff the other... I guess that still wouldn't be the same person though...

 

[indy and lara]

But no one will ever know weather it can unless you take to baby's with exact sane DNA/ colones and feed them one ff and one bf which they can't do! X

No but research and studies narrow down the variables and analyse the results with this considered.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Its so ridiculous, its not even worth arguing about.

 

[Tiff]

I definitely think its plausible. I only took issue with it being stated as fact. It is a very interesting study though and you never know, someday there may be a way to actually prove it which would be awesome.

I agree Indy, BF is definitely not the holy grail of health. Nothing is, but breastmilk definitely helps.

 

[sophxx]

Id love to see where everyone's children ended up on 20 years and what jobs they have or choose to to it's stupid to me! Unless it match for match DNA they just can't make those type of statements

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

It probably plays a 1% part or less.

 

[crossroads]

I ff my daughter... she was advanced on every milestone and continues to be advanced for her age. She is healthy and has no allegies.

I bf my son for 6 months, and he has taken longer on every milestone, he is smaller then my daughter, he has allergies already and had excema.

And since I "only" bf him for 6 months I feel like im looked down on by alot of people because I didn't put up with the sleepless nights and all the other crap until he was 2!

Sorry, i've been on both sides of the fence and alot of bfing moms are very clique and snobbish about it. Not all, I have some friends who are great and non-judgemental... but alot of bfing moms are just snobs and make ff moms to feel like shit.

What does breastfeeding have to do with sleepless nights?

You seem to be validating the assumption that mothers FF because they see BFing as hard and inconvenient.

It seems to me that you're looking for an argument

This is the debate section? Surely we shouldn't have to tiptoe in here as much as the rest of the forum? Just wondering.

There is a huge difference between a debate and an argument.

Arguing your point for the sake of arguing isn't constructive to any conversation/debate. You are right, you have to "tip toe" less in here, but there still are guidelines in which to post.

How do you know I was "arguing for the sake or arguing"? I'm extremelly passionate about breastfeeding, hence why I am attracted to breastfeeding threads/websites/groups. How can you make such an assumption? You only need to look at my B&B history to see that my passion is not an act or trollish.

Not all studies are pointless. Don't think I said that anywhere... Studies into things like preventing SIDS etc are very helpful. But why keep bringing out studies like "FF babies are more likely to be unhealthy/stupid/asbo kids" Why not just settle for Breast is best and leave it at that? We all know that's a fact, do we really need people going around shoving study after study about what damage their children will endure if they choose to FF?

How can women make informed feeding choices when they don't understand the risks of formula. A head in the sand approach leads to uninformed choices, thus disempowering mothers.

Appleblossom- the study says Breastfed babies are less likely to have behavioural problems. It does NOT say FF babies are stupid etc. That kind of comment is indicative of a misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the report. Even though we know breast is best, that assertion needs to be legitimized by accomoanying evidence. Before this no one attributed behaviour to BFing and it is a new development. ALOT of mothers want to know the consequences of their choices and these studies help them.

Yes I've noticed a lot of people do this, take one thing and turn it the wrong way around, especially with breastfeeding!! It is fact that breastfeeding makes children smarter and healthierthan that SAME child would have been otherwise. That is the KEY part most people miss. Formula doesn't do any harm, it just doesn't have the same benefits that breast milk does that's all.

I'm not sure I agree. Breastfeeding is the normal, natural way to feed human babies. Thus babies who are breastfed reach their normal potential - the potential they were genetically destined to reach. Formula feeding deviates from this potential. If you're interested I could dig out some articles.

Ok well whatever. I'm bored now, been here long enough to know that this particular kind of debates always end up with the same conclusion. Enjoy!

Great contribution to the debate.

I guess I still don't get it. The comment about the Dolorean made me giggle, but its entirely true! Unless you can go back in time, FF your baby and then test the differences there's no way to prove it. Therefore it cannot be fact. There can be studies, assumptions and theories, but not fact.

Just my 2.5 cents.

I don't understand what's hard to get. Human food for human babies. Surely it's easy to see that giving the milk of another species to an infant is going to have effects. Why do people assume that formula (a dead substance from a cow) is close to breastmilk (a living substance from a human)? How can people honestly believe that? If the formula companies were reading this thread they would be rubbing their hands in glee at the success of their marketing. Great for them. Great for their shareholders. Not great for mums wanting to make informed choices. Certainly not great for babies.

 

[bathbabe]

I ff my daughter... she was advanced on every milestone and continues to be advanced for her age. She is healthy and has no allegies.

I bf my son for 6 months, and he has taken longer on every milestone, he is smaller then my daughter, he has allergies already and had excema.

And since I "only" bf him for 6 months I feel like im looked down on by alot of people because I didn't put up with the sleepless nights and all the other crap until he was 2!

Sorry, i've been on both sides of the fence and alot of bfing moms are very clique and snobbish about it. Not all, I have some friends who are great and non-judgemental... but alot of bfing moms are just snobs and make ff moms to feel like shit.

What does breastfeeding have to do with sleepless nights?

You seem to be validating the assumption that mothers FF because they see BFing as hard and inconvenient.

It seems to me that you're looking for an argument

This is the debate section? Surely we shouldn't have to tiptoe in here as much as the rest of the forum? Just wondering.

There is a huge difference between a debate and an argument.

Arguing your point for the sake of arguing isn't constructive to any conversation/debate. You are right, you have to "tip toe" less in here, but there still are guidelines in which to post.

How do you know I was "arguing for the sake or arguing"? I'm extremelly passionate about breastfeeding, hence why I am attracted to breastfeeding threads/websites/groups. How can you make such an assumption? You only need to look at my B&B history to see that my passion is not an act or trollish.

Not all studies are pointless. Don't think I said that anywhere... Studies into things like preventing SIDS etc are very helpful. But why keep bringing out studies like "FF babies are more likely to be unhealthy/stupid/asbo kids" Why not just settle for Breast is best and leave it at that? We all know that's a fact, do we really need people going around shoving study after study about what damage their children will endure if they choose to FF?

How can women make informed feeding choices when they don't understand the risks of formula. A head in the sand approach leads to uninformed choices, thus disempowering mothers.

Appleblossom- the study says Breastfed babies are less likely to have behavioural problems. It does NOT say FF babies are stupid etc. That kind of comment is indicative of a misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the report. Even though we know breast is best, that assertion needs to be legitimized by accomoanying evidence. Before this no one attributed behaviour to BFing and it is a new development. ALOT of mothers want to know the consequences of their choices and these studies help them.

Yes I've noticed a lot of people do this, take one thing and turn it the wrong way around, especially with breastfeeding!! It is fact that breastfeeding makes children smarter and healthierthan that SAME child would have been otherwise. That is the KEY part most people miss. Formula doesn't do any harm, it just doesn't have the same benefits that breast milk does that's all.

I'm not sure I agree. Breastfeeding is the normal, natural way to feed human babies. Thus babies who are breastfed reach their normal potential - the potential they were genetically destined to reach. Formula feeding deviates from this potential. If you're interested I could dig out some articles.

Ok well whatever. I'm bored now, been here long enough to know that this particular kind of debates always end up with the same conclusion. Enjoy!

Great contribution to the debate.

I guess I still don't get it. The comment about the Dolorean made me giggle, but its entirely true! Unless you can go back in time, FF your baby and then test the differences there's no way to prove it. Therefore it cannot be fact. There can be studies, assumptions and theories, but not fact.

Just my 2.5 cents.

I don't understand what's hard to get. Human food for human babies. Surely it's easy to see that giving the milk of another species to an infant is going to have effects. Why do people assume that formula (a dead substance from a cow) is close to breastmilk (a living substance from a human)? How can people honestly believe that? If the formula companies were reading this thread they would be rubbing their hands in glee at the success of their marketing. Great for them. Great for their shareholders. Not great for mums wanting to make informed choices. Certainly not great for babies.

Stuck up your own arse much?
Not everybody wants to breastfeed, or can. So what? Doesnt mean you can say their children wont be as smart as they should be. Grr youve actually really pissed me off and i support breastfeeding.

 

[tiger]

Stuck up your own arse much?
Not everybody wants to breastfeed, or can. So what? Doesnt mean you can say their children wont be as smart as they should be. Grr youve actually really pissed me off and i support breastfeeding.

this thread is seriously disgusting.
my son is FF, because he had to be or he would have starved to death, because i didnt make milk, hes 14mths, 30lbs and completely off the charts for his height, he crawled early, sat up early, walked early, talked early.
so if the theory that he would have reach his 'potential' better or earlier of whatever the hell is being said was true, i would have had a genius newborn.

this was a healthy debate and its turned into a selfish and downgrading argument.
no wonder so many people are leaving this forum.

 

[mrsthomas623]

Appleblossom- the study says Breastfed babies are less likely to have behavioural problems. It does NOT say FF babies are stupid etc. That kind of comment is indicative of a misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the report. Even though we know breast is best, that assertion needs to be legitimized by accomoanying evidence. Before this no one attributed behaviour to BFing and it is a new development. ALOT of mothers want to know the consequences of their choices and these studies help them.

Yes I've noticed a lot of people do this, take one thing and turn it the wrong way around, especially with breastfeeding!! It is fact that breastfeeding makes children smarter and healthierthan that SAME child would have been otherwise. That is the KEY part most people miss. Formula doesn't do any harm, it just doesn't have the same benefits that breast milk does that's all.

I disagree to your bolded and underlined part about being smarter

Mainly because I have seen breastfed babies that are behind milestones rather than formula fed babies. I do believe that breastmilk has antibodies that formula doesn't have, and while it wasn't the route for me I have nothing against breastfeeding. In fact, I love seeing all the "I have breastfed for x amount of months" Makes me happy.

But to say that its fact that breasfed babies are smarter is something I personally don't understand. Unless I'm just in the area where its the exception, not the rule? I dunno.

I get that response quite often, and I'd be happy to explain it to you
I learned about this in a psychology course while learning about the brain. Breast milk helps myelination occur more efficiently. Myelination is basically when a myelin sheath is formed around the axon of neurons throughout the brain. This myelin sheath insulates the axon and makes information travel faster and also keeps the connection from breaking so the information makes it to where it's going. This whole process results in higher intelligence.
Myelination does still occur if you formula feed though, just not as efficiently. That's why I always make sure to include that the intelligence boost is only relative to each child. A breast fed baby can have a low IQ, but it will be higher than it would have been if that child had not been breast fed but still had every other factor of their life exactly the same.

Thanks for this.

Maybe it is best I FF from a few weeks old...because Nolan is way too smart for own good already.

All jokes aside, I think the reason a lot of FF momma's get so defensive is because a lot of us planned on BFing and already have guilt from it not working out for whatever reason, that we don't want to be constantly reminded of the benefits of breast milk. MOST BFing momma's get this, but then there are some that constantly harp on it, to the point that it feels very judgmental. And lets be honest, we get enough judgment from family and friends, we don't need it online, too!

I don't think anyone can deny breast is best and that it has many benefits. I plan on BFing out next one if/when we have one.

 

[summer rain]

I'm talking about not gaining weight to whee they are going to hospital as they have lost weight we have the correct charts here as they are all taking part on thestudy in London as is my lo. Thanks

Most BF babies I have known have gained weight even more than their FF contemporaries at first (and even more than my BF babies); but after 4 months BF babies do tail off in their weight gain; this is totally normal. The new charts are geared this way, the charts 'expect' a considerably larger gain in the first few weeks than the old charts did(that were based mainly on FF babies). You may know some people whose BF babies didn't gain enough to thrive but this is incredibly rare. If you're taking part in an allergy related study then babies with allergies do often have problems gaining weight, the main problem in this regard is cows milk protein intolerance; so many FF babies will fail to thrive when fed a cows milk formula and will need a specialist formula. On the other hand a BF baby with the same issue will be ok in most cases with dairy products eliminated from mum's diet. This is one reason I have stuck with EBF my son for so long, despite having many issues, because he is allergic to cows milk and getting an appropriate formula on the NHS is like getting blood out of a stone. My sister has crohns that the doctors do think was caused by having milk products; including formula, very early in life so I don't want to risk my son's health knowing my family's history of allergies like this. Many FF babies have problems gaining weight as well; there have been many threads from ladies here and many babies no matter how they are fed; will not gain as much or even lose weight; due to an illness. If BF was so bad for babies in terms of gaining weight and thriving and growing into healthy adults; none of us would be alive right now. I switched to FF with one of mine at 3.5 months because his allergies were too bad to be dealt with by food elimination (a very rare case), he did gain over 1lb in five days in the first week he switched to formula but after that he didn't gain so well and he now still has problems with dairy and soya; which is much much harder to deal with in a 4 year old. Formula isn't poison but claiming that BF babies generally don't gain enough to thrive and have to go to hospital is totally unfair I really don't see why some FF mums have to completely 'dawg' BF and throw the baby out with the bath water when they hear of a study like this.

 

[crossroads]

Stuck up your own arse much?

I care about babies.

 

[sophxx]

.

 

[Tiff]

I care about babies.

Its comments exactly like that that DO make your posts seem argumentative and trollish (trollish being your word, not mine). What exactly do you hope to accomplish by making that statement other than feed the fire? Do you even realize how that comes across to people who don't share your viewpoint? So what, FF mothers don't care about their babies as much as YOU care about yours?

How can YOU make that assumption? And yes, I have seen your posts on the forum and they can be pretty rude. We were having a really interesting, informative debate in here before you come waltzing in with your superior, sanctimonious attitude.

 

[crossroads]

I care about babies.

Its comments exactly like that that DO make your posts seem argumentative and trollish (trollish being your word, not mine). What exactly do you hope to accomplish by making that statement other than feed the fire? Do you even realize how that comes across to people who don't share your viewpoint? So what, FF mothers don't care about their babies as much as YOU care about yours?

How can YOU make that assumption? And yes, I have seen your posts on the forum and they can be pretty rude. We were having a really interesting, informative debate in here before you come waltzing in with your superior, sanctimonious attitude.

That was my response to someone that said I was stuck up my own arse (not that you care when someone attacks me like that). I am substantiating my views. Caring for babies is what is central to my breastfeeding passion. It is THE main reason I do it. Caring for babies fuels my BF decisions - rather than being "stuck up my own arse". I don't BF for ME. I do it for my babies.

 

[Tiff]

If you had been posting in a non-argumentative manner then yes, I would have cared. Since that wasn't the case then I see no reason why people can't tell you how they feel when you post the stuff you do in the manner in which you do it.

There are plenty of ways to get your point across without having to be argumentative and rude. There are plenty of pro-breastfeeding people in this thread who have gotten their points across without feeding any stereotypes or digging the ditch between FF moms and BF moms deeper.

 

[crossroads]

If you had been posting in a non-argumentative manner then yes, I would have cared. Since that wasn't the case then I see no reason why people can't tell you how they feel when you post the stuff you do in the manner in which you do it.

There are plenty of ways to get your point across without having to be argumentative and rude. There are plenty of pro-breastfeeding people in this thread who have gotten their points across without feeding any stereotypes or digging the ditch between FF moms and BF moms deeper.

I don't believe in handling adult women with kid gloves. If we're mature enough to have kids, then we're mature enough to handle opposing views and/or critizism.

 

[Tiff]

I'm sorry, you are talking about being mature? That's the best thing I've heard all day.

I know there's no way of showing you that how you post is actually counterproductive to your cause. I just feel bad for the FF mothers out there who might actually consider BF their next child until you come along and badger them. Your posts push people away from breastfeeding, not draw them towards it. Its a damn shame you don't see that.

ETA - I know you'll just have some smart assed response to this, and that's fine. But seriously, see how defensive and upset people get when you start posting your "passions". Those are people you could be bringing towards you! Instead you choose to drive them away. Its very sad, and doesn't help the breastfeeding movement at all.