An interesting benefit of breast feeding...

[onthefly]

I think the impact of breastfeeding on cognitive development is multi-faceted - it includes some of the ingredients in breastmilk as well as the act of breastfeeding itself (hormonal/physical intimacy, sucking, etc). Babies who are not breastfed will miss out on some or all of these factors.

[meow]

I think the impact of breastfeeding on cognitive development is multi-faceted - it includes some of the ingredients in breastmilk as well as the act of breastfeeding itself (hormonal/physical intimacy, sucking, etc). Babies who are not breastfed will miss out on some or all of these factors.

I agree. I was pondering this... I suppose you could study children based upon breastfeeding, expressed breastmilk bottle feeding and formula bottle feeding and then
see what the outcomes are. That could be interesting.

[Maruschke]

I think the impact of breastfeeding on cognitive development is multi-faceted - it includes some of the ingredients in breastmilk as well as the act of breastfeeding itself (hormonal/physical intimacy, sucking, etc). Babies who are not breastfed will miss out on some or all of these factors.

Yeah that. And perhaps also that the mother is more likely to not be working full time if she is full time BF? That has to have an impact that is difficult to quantify.

[onthefly]

I just read Breastfeeding Matters - it's a good read if anyone's interested in reading more about what's in breast milk and why it's important. It's something we're still learning more about, day by day. All the amazing findings about what's in breast milk and how the different factors interact with each other, as well as the other aspects of feeding which are so integral to human development really highlight the gap between breastfeeding and artificial feeding. I hope that in time - though not too much time - it can revitilise our motivation as a society to really do our best by babies and mothers when it comes to infant nutrition.

Ultimately there are millions of variables invovled in raising human beings. We can only control some and do our best accordingly.

[Maruschke]

Sure, but maybe if we learned more about why BF is so good, we can take the elements of it that are transferrable and help ABM mothers adopt those practices too?

[nothing2lose]

In 1970, around the time I was born, Australia had a breast feeding rate of less than 10 percent at six months (an all time low).

Interestingly, as breast feeding rates are now 50 per cent better at the same stage, the collective national IQ hasn't peaked and we are facing a childhood obesity crisis.

Nothing is as black and white as this study suggests.

Feed your children everyone. And stop worrying how your neighbor is feeding theirs (unless theyre not feeding them at all!)

[BellyBelly]

Birth interventions are also at an all time high

[boomba]

But if we can educate and support women who want to feed we need to worry about our neighbours children.
The info we can get out the better :-)