Can anybody give me a direct link to a credible study citing that breastfed babies are...?

Question

more alert, smarter (higher cognitive skills), healthier and immune to common illnesses as opposed to formula fed infants? I'd also like to see a credible study citing that formula fed infants IN DEVELOPED NATIONS are more lkely to die than breastfed infants.

Credible=not from La Leche League. I'm talking about an NCBI study or something equal. Trust me, I have dug deep, and it was not to be found by my efforts. Maybe someone here can be kind enough to point me in the direction of this golden fleece so that I can read it for myself.

Not interested in ANY propaganda from Kellymon, LLL, or breast militia sites. Please post facts only. PLEASE.

Thank you.

Be Blessed.

The intelligence study is based on a small study conducted in Denmark for only TWO YEARS??

Sorry, that is too limited to be considered a "fact". \

Next, please.??

The intelligence study is based on a small study conducted in Denmark for only TWO YEARS??

Sorry, that is too limited to be considered a "fact". \

Next, please.??

John J, you are sadly mistaken. The infant receives most all of his antibodies WHILE IN THE WOMB, via the mother's placenta. If a term infant's GI tract conatined absolutely no microflora after birth, he could not even properly assimilate breastmilk, food of the gods, much less formula, but millions do every day, and those millions survive and live to tell a story.

Julia- Thanks. I lost all my baby weight too. I gained 50 lbs with my last baby, and I only pumped for 5 months. I lost 60 lbs. I'm now back to my high school weight. I credit this to genetics and not breastfeeding.

Answer 1

There won't be one, because it isn't a "proven fact" as so many people claim.

Answer 2

Everything you might want to know about breastfeeding from the foremost authority on health in the world - the World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/

It is a simple fact that breastmilk is easier for a baby stomach to digest, it is created for that simple purpose. Formula attempts to emulate this, but since it uses synthetic chemicals that attempt to mimic some features in breastmilk it can only come close. This fact doesn't even take into account the fact that breast milk contains the antibodies that a mother's body creates. Thus if the mother comes down with an illness, the baby will get the antibodies that the mother creates and be better able to fight of the infection than an infant with an as yet not quite fully developed imune system. This last is not even a question, it is a fact. Take a sample of a mother's breast milk and you will find the antibodies in it.

The IQ thing is a preliminary study and might not have shown a conclusive correlation, but there is no proven benifit at all from formula. The only thing gained by feeding a child formula is not needing to spend as much time with your child. I don't know that that is really a plus though...

I agree that an infant receives many of its antibodies in the womb, BUT it continues to recieve antibodies through breastmilk that can ward off things the mother creates antibodies to after birth (i.e. the flu, etc.)

Answer 3

I found this NCBI atricle by searching 'Breastfeeding western' in Google scholar'. Hopefully if you paste the link below in your browser it will let you see the whole article, but I've attached the conclusion in case not.

Conclusion

There is now substantial evidence to suggest that prolonged
breastfeeding benefits the health of mothers and children in
developed countries, while artificial feeding and early weaning
may compromise their well-being and result in considerable
financial costs for health services.
Effective application of present knowledge, using health care
systems which are already in place, could improve breastfeeding
rates and thereby the health of women and children.
References
1. Forty-seventh World Health Assembly. Resolution WHA 47

PS John J is correct, a major advantage is that the mother continues to pass anitbodies to the baby while breastfeeding. You are of course correct, it does get a lot while in the womb, and a lot in the first couple of daysof feeding, with a tailing off over time, but I'm afraid there is NO getting away from it- if you can do it, breast is always best.

Answer 4

I wonder if you are really open to the research/studies out there and what source you would consider credible, as you seem pretty defensive and angry. But, I am going to try. Here is a link that is the American Academy of Pediatrics stance on breastmilk. I hope you will consider this credible. If you dont consider that credible, than I dont know what source you would...but, this is a direct quote "Extensive research using improved epidemiologic methods and modern laboratory techniques documents diverse and compelling advantages for infants, mothers, families, and society from breastfeeding and use of human milk for infant feeding.1 These advantages include health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychologic, social, economic, and environmental benefits." The source for the full article is http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496

I would like to know what you think about it and if it changes your mind any. God bless.

Answer 5

For starters, I have never gone to a La Leche League meeting, and have solely breastfed my baby for 8 months...

This site might be of interest to you:
http://www.nrdc.org/breastmilk/benefits.asp

This one is a bit graphic, but also informative:
http://www.breastfeedingbasics.org/cgi-bin/deliver.cgi/content/Introduction/adb_nutritional.html

Also, I think it's very telling that ALL of the formula companies (who have the most to gain by pooh-poohing breastfeeding) say that breastfeeding is the BEST thing you can do for your baby.

From what I've been told by various nurses, breastfeeding specialists, and WIC coordinators, formula is still 300 ingredients shy of what mom's produce naturally from the breast.

(Of course, common sense indicates that if a mom is stuffing her face with potato chips, candy, and other unhealthy "food", then her milk will be significantly less healthy for the baby!)

Further, there seems to be a great deal of benefits for the MOTHER by breastfeeding...I can confirm that I lost over 50 pounds in 5 months from breastfeeding alone, and I was packing on 2800 calories (all healthy stuff) per day while the pounds just melted off...

The oxytocin released in my system also tightened my uterus like a drum... =)

Hope that helps!

Answer 6

"The Cochrane Library" is a "collection of careful studies and systematic reviews of current research." It was created when 3 OB's from Canada, UK, and Netherlands were dissatisfied with the lack of randomized, controlled trials in obstetrics. It houses "more than 9,000 controlled trials from almost 400 medical journals, in 18 languages from 85 countries." The "research team includes doctors, midwives, nurses, public health experts, and statisticians who find and evaluate the world's best research and then make recommendations for practice."
www.cochrane.org

I hope that this has something that you are looking for. Good Luck.

Answer 7

Hi there,

Here are some peer-reviewed journal articles which may of some use to you. I've tried to find ones that include meta-analyses, participants from all over the world, and longitudinal and follow-up studies on children of later ages. All the results conclude that breast-feeding seemed to have positive effects on cognitive development and the prevention of different diseases, even when social factors were taken into consideration.

Howie PW, Forsyth JS, Ogston SA, Clark A, Florey C du V. Protective effect of breast feeding against infection. BMJ 1990; 300: 11-6.

Wilson AC, Forsyth JS, Greene SA, Irvine L, Hau C, Howie PW. Relation of infant diet to childhood health: seven year follow up of cohort of children in Dundee infant feeding study. BMJ 1998; 316: 21-5.

James W Anderson, Bryan M Johnstone and Daniel T Remley. Breast-feeding and cognitive development: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 70, No. 4, 525-535, October 1999 (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/4/525)

Lanting, C. I.; Fidler, V.; Huisman, M.; Touwen, B. C. L.; Boersma, E. R. Neurological Differences Between 9-Year-Old Children Fed Breast-Milk or Formula-Milk as Babies. Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey. 50(5):349-350, May 1995.

Chandra RK. Prospective studies of the effect of breast feeding on incidence of infection and allergy. Acta Paediatr Scand. 1979 Sep;68(5):691-4.

Mardya López-Alarcón, Salvador Villalpando, and Arturo Fajardo. Breast-Feeding Lowers the Frequency and Duration of Acute Respiratory Infection and Diarrhea in Infants under Six Months of Age. The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 127 No. 3 March 1997, pp. 436-443 Copyright ©1997 by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences

Kull, M Wickman, G Lilja, S L Nordvall and G Pershagen. Breast feeding and allergic diseases in infants—a prospective birth cohort study. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2002;87:478-481
© 2002 Archives of Disease in Childhood. (http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/87/6/478)

R Morley, TJ Cole, R Powell and A Lucas. Mother's choice to provide breast milk and developmental outcome. Archives of Disease in Childhood, Vol 63, 1382-1385, Copyright © 1988 by Archives of Disease in Childhood.

All of the above were taken from the first 1-30 results of 12,700 scholarly articles about the issue. I have not yet found any articles regarding negative, or non-effects, of breastfeeding. I did not search for specifically positive results: the search terms I used were "BREAST FEEDING BABIES" on the Google Scholar search engine.

I have a feeling that the reason your search has come up short is because most mainstream sites don't look at serious journal articles - and most serious journal articles don't make it to the mainstream. As you can see, they don't have (for the most part) quick links and things like that - you'd be hard-pressed to find many of them if you don't have access to a library or university's online journal article system.

However, from what I've seen so far, it does seem that breastfeeding has more positive effects than formula-feeding. I think it's important to recognize, however, that this information not be used to shame, accuse, or denigrate mothers who choose to formula-feed babies for their own reasons.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: My reason for saying that formula-feeding mothers shouldn't get a slap in the face is because their children aren't by any means doomed to violent, disease-ridden deaths or inept intelligence. Formula-feeding a child isn't going to harm it, it simply won't have some of the positive increases that breast-feeding seems to offer.

Answer 8

I can't cite a study, but I can tell you what my pediatrician told me to do when the "La Leaky" brigade was at my house and my infant was wailing and they wanted to strap tubes to my breasts, hang formula around my neck and "nurse" the baby: throw them out, give her a bottle (of formula) and get some rest.

All of a sudden, if you don't breastfeed you're a bad mom, or you don't want what is best for baby, etc. That's a load of hooey: My husband was THRILLED when I went to bottle feeding like the doc said; he really wanted to feed her and I really needed some rest.

Lots of us with 4.0+ GPA's were bottle fed, so relax, and just do what you want to do. The "leagues" who tell women they have "failed" when they can't or won't breastfeed should really learn to mind their own business.

Answer 9

All I can say is that my 2 girls were bottlefed and have never been ill beyond the common cold.

I honestly don't think there is a difference between breastfeeding and formula feeding.

Answer 10

I can't understand why anyone would not breastfeed. Further, I can't understand why this country (US) has such an aversion to breastfeeding. We really need to not be such a boobphobic culture.

Dam Fundies.