According to an article out of The Atlantic, breastfeeding may not be more beneficial than formula use, contrary to popular belief.
Women have been breastfeeding their children since the beginning of time, and I’m certain that the practice won’t ever be out of fashion. However, what I’d like to talk about today is the effects of formula feeding versus breastfeeding and the stigma most recently attached to women who opt not to breastfeed.
According to previous and current belief, breastfeeding promotes healthy braincell growth and “proves” that children who are exclusively breastfed score seven to ten points higher on IQ tests than that of children who use Similac, or the like. More potential benefits of breastfeeding include lowered risk of food allergy (which is probably unarguable, being that whatever the mother happens to consume while breastfeeding is passed through, however insignificantly, to the child), a better complexion in adolescent years, lower rates of obesity and adult diabetes and fewer stomach ailments.
My problem with a good portion of the argument is this: What if the mother isn’t exactly the best eater to begin with? When you breastfeed, you have to be extremely careful as to what you do eat, being that it is being transferred to the child via the milk supply. I breastfed for two weeks after the birth of my child, and I had to be very cognizant of what I was eating so as to not upset the poor baby’s delicate stomach. Not that it mattered to me, but regardless. You could eat something that you wouldn’t feel would trigger an allergic reaction, but that’s the lovely thing about these reactions; there’s never a history of something adverse happening until it actually happens. What if the mother has an allergy to fruits or vegetables? The child is going to be deprived of the necessary nutrients required to flourish.
It’s proven that baby formula is enriched with many vitamins and minerals that women’s bodies just can’t sufficiently produce the week after giving birth. Giving birth takes a lot out of the female’s body, and even more when a child is sucking their own personal lifeblood out of these women. Why deprive the child the necessary nutrients he or she needs just because formula use is now considered “taboo”? These new formulas on the market now are so fortified with imperative nutritional value that it almost seems silly, in my humble opinion, not to take advantage of the benefits of exclusive formula use.
Another stigma attached to breastfeeding is the woman who simply chooses not to breastfeed. Going back to a previous statement, I said that I breastfed for two weeks. I did that for two reasons. At the time, I felt it best for my child, as I was a relatively good eater and felt that I could sufficiently provide enough minerals, nutrients and vitamins to sustain us both. The latter was because my midwives, OB and family-in-law practically forced my hand in doing so. I’m not an easily-swayed woman, by any far cry, but when you have fourteen dozen people breathing down your neck about what is best for the baby, being that it was a new experience for me, it’s kind of hard to reject the advice. It’s also kind of hard to accept the fact that I would have been a social pariah if I declined to breastfeed. When I was in the hospital, an hour after giving birth and still kind of out of it, the nurses came in, whipped out my tit and just short of forced me to breastfeed. Granted, I had made the conscious decision to breastfeed prior to this incident, but still. I felt kind of alienated, at the risk of sounding stupid or selfish.
After I went home, I made my best efforts to continue breastfeeding. I won’t lie; I had a horrible time of it. It was not the “nirvana-inducing” experience that some women had spoken of. It wasn’t even, for me, the “bonding” experience that some women had enjoyed. For me, it was overly-hard work, pain and frustration at myself for not being able to produce the milk supply needed to satisfy my child. In the first two weeks, my child had nothing but problems passing stool and seemed very unhappy with my boob performance. She simply wasn’t getting what she needed from me. My nipples were irritated and sore all of the time and my breasts were so engorged with milk because instead of my baby sucking it all out of me (for whatever reason), it was backing up and plugging my ducts. There were several nights that I had to sleep with my arms above my head, so as not to “crunch” the sensitive breast tissue in my armpits that had become swollen and inflamed. Also, on a completely selfish note, my boobs have never been the same. Regardless. It’s livable. That’s why God invented silicone implants. Or at least created the scientists that designed them.
Needless to say, I gave up after two weeks and switched my infant strictly to formula. From that point on, she never had any other stomach issues. She began, right off the bat, drinking four ounces of formula at a time and eating regularly, which influenced her happiness, unquestionably. Other than this past week (which was a nightmare), she’s never been ill or suffered any major sickness.
I’m not coming down on breastfeeding. I believe it does have a lot of benefits. I’m also not coming down on the women who choose to breastfeed rather than bottlefeed. I am, however, coming down on the women and physicians who forcibly bestow their advice to women who find it to just not be right for them.
Becoming a mama has been the single most rewarding experience of my life, and I can only ascertain that it’s going to get better as time goes by. My child and I both will reap the rewards that we’ve thus far received.
My advice to expecting mothers and not-so-expecting mothers? Do what’s right according to your intuition. Everyone’s choices are different and what’s right for one is not necessarily what’s right for another. Motherhood (and fatherhood, of course) is a fly by the seat of your pants type of experience, as it should be. We can only learn by doing it ourselves.
there’s this whole idea that if you don’t breastfeed your child, you’re a bad mom. I hate that.
I got more grief from friends than the hospital, surprisingly. My son was 5 weeks premature, which is not very premature, but he had hypoglycemia. That means his blood sugars were very low, and he had to eat and maintain a normal blood sugar before he could go home. The hospital preferred he eat formula, were very surprised that I was an easy sell. This was from the newborn ICU.
And – I was so tired the first few weeks (month) that I would forget to eat lunch much of the time, so unless someone is setting meals in front of you, I doubt many new moms are eating as well as they would like. The baby is more likely drawing your reserves like they did while you were pregnant. I do think breastfeeding is probably best for the baby – it is what the body was designed for, but formula has been around for a long time, if there was a significant loss to the child, we would know more about it.
While I think women should be able to decide either way what is best for their child in their situation and agree with you on most points, I do strongly disagree with the following: “It’s proven that baby formula is enriched with many vitamins and minerals that women’s bodies just can’t sufficiently produce the week after giving birth. ”
I honestly believe that breastmilk would have just the right amount of nutrients for a human child since it’s the nourishment nature provided. I guess I just don’t think nature would be insufficient. That is, of course, if the mother is completely healthy and has no post pregnancy problems. I mean there’s always an exception.
We went over the breastmilk study in my psych class and it really was astounding the difference it made.
I personally don’t know what I’ll end up doing, breastfeeding sounds entirely unpleasant, and not really all that worth it. My older brother was not breastfed and he’s still a fucking genius, who cares about what people think and what studies say. If 6 iq points matter to you, then maybe you should reconsider having children. The idea is to love them for who they are however they may turn out, and do your best to give them the fundamentals to live a happy structured life, not to make them into perfect little baby einstein drones.
I breastfed both of my daughters, the older for only a few months (then she got teeth and, well, you know …) and the younger for almost a year.
While I don’t regret nursing my children and feel that it definitely gave me a unique bond with them (and, knock on wood, they’re both incredibly healthy), I do resent the pressure I felt to breastfeed … and that pressure came from everywhere–doctors, nurses, family, friends, strange random women in the grocery store (“She’s so chubby … you must be breastfeeding her. That’s wonderful, keep it up, it’s so much better for her!”).
I certainly remember the pressure to breastfeed from nurses, doctors, WIC, etc. My son however wanted nothing to do with breast milk, even through a pump and into a bottle. The kid wanted similac, I finally had to get firm with everyone else who decided it was their place to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do to make sure my kid was fed. That truly bothers me how many people think that new moms just absolutely couldn’t know how to do anything with their children and you should bombard her with all your “good” advice until her ears bleed and she does it your way. No, thank you, I’m a smart woman with enough intuition to know what my child needs or wants. He’s now 2 1/2 years old and healthy as can be, so obviously I’ve done something right. I do not doubt that breast milk is absolutely full of nutrients a newborn needs, but you also have to watch what you eat and think about whether or not a food that may not bother your stomach would upset a tiny sensitive stomach that comes along with your newborn bundle of joy. Personally, I was able to ignore the pressure and get people off my back. I may be a young mom, but I’m a quick learner and an intuitive woman. I think almost every mom out there has an intuition with their children and know what they truly need.
You know, I often wonder if breastmilk is the super potion it’s touted to be. I think in most cases it’s best, but women who don’t want to or can’t breastfeed due to work commitments(flightline duty in the military, anyone? Deployment?) shouldn’t be demonized. My personal opinion is that babies’ increased IQ is probably due more to women being of a slightly higher socioeconomic status (in the US anyhow). It stands to reason that anyone who actually reads the studies is somewhat educated, and probably isn’t working an 80 hour week to support their family.
Word
I managed to breastfeed for 5 months, and it had its pros and cons. My son was a large baby and so it was difficult to keep up with him, and so I was unable to pump and have any freedom at all.
The way I look at it, the mother is the one who has to deal with it, so it is her choice and no one else’s. People are always trying to stuff an opinion down your throat when you have a baby, but that is probably because they miss the feeling of being a new mother. It is really a special time.
Why people feel the need to ‘pressure’ women into breastfeeding,is beyond me.Some women are just physically not able to breastfeed,and I really don’t think they should be made to feel any less of a good mommy,just because they are bottlefeeding their baby.
My mom (who has 4 children),my 2 sisters and my SIL couldn’t breastfeed any of their kids,at least not for longer than a month,after which their breast milk naturally stopped being produced.And their kids are not worse off than anyone else’s children.
I breastfed and luckily I had an easy time with it. My reasons were selfish and I am not afraid to say one of the biggest reasons I breastfed was so I would not have to get out of bed at night for a bottle – just whip out the ol boob. I would NEVER look down on anyone who chose formula over breastmilk. We should be supporting each other, not getting that ‘pinched-asshole-looking-mouth’ when someone doesn’t breastfeed.
It seems to me like breastfeeding for the period of time required to be beneficial is a possibility only for women who a. do not have to return to work immediately i.e. women with enough of a financial cushion to afford a few months off work or b. women who have workplaces that support them in expressing their milk during the day, rather than merely tolerating it because they are legally required to do so. This evidence is anecdotal, but in my experience ‘professional’ women are more likely to receive this support than women in the lower-paying service industry. One could argue that both groups of women are more likely, on average, to afford maintaining a nutritious diet and also to continue breastfeeding longer than women without these support systems. If we accept that the women who report breastfeeding for a significant period of time are, on average, more likely to have more money than women who stop breastfeeding early, some of the differences in IQ could be linked to the known disparities in IQ between children from wealthy families and children from poorer families. It has been established that these disparities are not genetic, but principally situational. Therefore, the research supporting breastfeeding as beneficial to babies may be ignoring the factors that affect what kinds of women are more likely to breastfeed, and thus skewing the results. This argument can also be used in relation to physical benefits, as children from poorer families are more likely to suffer from a variety of illnesses.
It might be helpful for you to know what the study she’s referring to actually is (at least i think this is the one she is referring to). I have an excerpt from my psych book that I’m copying directly here.
“With parental permission, a British research team led by Alan Lucas (1992) decided to experiment. They randomly assigned 424 hospital preterm infants to either the usual infant formula feedings or to donated breast milk feedings. When given intelligence tests at age 8, the children nourished with breast milk had significantly higher intelligence scores than their formula fed counterparts. No single experiment is conclusive, of course. But by randomly assigning infants to one feeding group or the other, these researchers were able to hold constant all factors except nutrition. This eliminated alternative explanations and supported the conclusion that, so far as the developing intelligence of preterm infants is concerned, breast is best. (NOTE: the other infants were not harmed by the experiment, because they received the standard feeding.) ”
That’s for anyone who is interested.
Oh and if it makes you guys feel any better I’ve never thought any differently about a woman who decided to formula feed. I’m sure you’re all great moms =]