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medpundit |
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Wednesday, May 08, 2002The difference in intelligence between breast and bottle fed infants once they reached adulthood, however, wasn’t all that great. According to the JAMA article, the differences in intelligence test scores were as follows: “Full Scale WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) IQs were 99.4, 101.7, 102.3, 106.0, and 104.0 for breastfeeding durations of less than 1 month, 2 to 3 months, 4 to 6 months, 7 to 9 months, and more than 9 months, respectively (P = .003 for overall F test).” So, if your mom breast feeds you for nine months, but not more, you might have on average about seven more points on an intelligence scale. We’re not exactly talking the difference between morons and geniuses here. I don’t object to breast feeding. Breast milk, after all, is designed to feed a human infant and infant formula makes a valiant attempt to reproduce breast milk as closely as possible. What I do object to, however, is the tendency for breast feeding advocates to overglorify and oversell it to the point that a new mother feels like a failure if she fails to live up to their expectations. I can’t tell you how often I’ve sat with a woman in my office in tears because she’s convinced she’s let her baby down by being unable to breast feed successfully. The truth is, babies on formula do just as well. They thrive, and grow, and do well in school and go on to live productive lives. The advantage to breast feeding over formula both socially and medically is only statistically significant, not truly significant. posted by Sydney on 5/08/2002 06:42:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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