<p>I haven’t seen anyone post [this</a> BBC News article](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5398738.stm]this”>BBC NEWS | Health | Breast milk 'does not boost IQ') but since it’s not in my area of expertise, I’ll leave the discussion to others.
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<p>For every study that “proves” one thing, there is another one that discounts those findings. </p>
<p>As a mother who spent an almost solid 12+ year segment of my life with a babe at my breast (uhhh, make that SIX babes!), all I can say is, NURSING ROCKS in too many ways to count, research notwithstanding.</p>
<p>Berurah- I nursed for about 8 years- and I only have two kids! lol( it was only for first aid purposes after a couple years- )</p>
<p>Considering that my 1st born was 10 weeks early- suffered intercrainal hemmorages as well as hemmoraging throughout her body, was on a respirator for her first two weeks and in an NICU for 6 more weeks . She wasn’t even big enough to nurse ( she came home before she weighed 4 lbs) until she was about 4 months old, which inspired me to do it for much longer than I originally intended 
I attribute how well she did developmentally- to the tactile stimulation as well as the protective nutrients in breast milk.
My intelligence is probably average- at the time I had her I was 24 years old- hadn’t finished high school- but I felt like since I couldn’t even deliver her right,( I had a crash c-section) I at least could nurse her</p>
<p>I began going back to school ( community college) when she was about 4, because it was obvious that I was not going to be able to keep up with her unless I did! lol</p>
<p>( She was tested in elementary school as having an estimated iq of 160± I can’t say I attribute all that to breastfeeding- but what else could it be? The substances that H and I consumed in the 70s? )</p>
<p>I will say however that some regions have more support for nursing than others. When my mother and my husbands mother had kids- formula was supposed to * improve* on nature. Some folks may still feel that way, or they believe they won’t lose weight until they wean, or they want to reserve their breasts for " their husbands".
But I did it because I was lazy. It was a lot more work in the middle of the night, to find a clean bottle, prepare formula, warm it, and feed the baby, than it was to roll onto my side and pop the nipple in her mouth! ;)</p>
<p>EK, I thought I was the only one who manage to nurse that long on only two kids! I think there are a million good reasons to breastfeed, the teensy IQ boost other studies have shown (and my recollection was that they tried to account for maternal IQ) was not the reason I breastfed. My kids are bright and super healthy - what more can I ask for.</p>
<p>I didn’t breastfeed the oldest one but extended nursed the two younger ones and D1 never lets me forget it! She (teasingly) will say if she does poorly on a test or forgets something “Mom, what can you expect from someone who wasn’t breastfed.”</p>
<p>There is evidence that long chain fatty acids are critical to both brain and retinal cell permeability. These fatty acids are abundant in human breastmilk and not until recently dd some formulas add them.</p>
<p>Let’s be logical: every mammal milk is perfectly suited to the survival needs of the offspring. Seal pups need to lay on blubber to survive; seal milk is, unsurprisingly, very high in fat. Calves need to get up and run with the herd. Unsurprisingly, cow’s milk provides calcium.</p>
<p>Our survival organ is the brain. The human brain grows rapidly in the first 2-3 years of life. It is only logical that breastmilk has been designed via evolution to optimize this growth.</p>
<p>The IQ/breatmilk studies I am familiar with compared babies who had been bottle-fed either pumped breastmilk or formula for one month only. Thereafter all the babies received formula. At age 5 there was an average 8 point IQ advantage among the milk-fed group. This is with ONE MONTH via bottle.</p>
<p>Let’s remember that 3 IQ points is considered significant when evaluating lead poisoning.</p>
<p>I would say breastfeeding, genetics, and social stimulation are all factors in optimizing a child’s intelligence.</p>
<p>I also nursed both kids as long as they were interested, which was until they started drinking out of cups & becoming increasingly independent. It was a matter of survival, since my 1st would refuse to drink ANYTHING from anywhere else, no matter how tired & hungry he was (even would refuse pumped breast milk). Also hated cleaning & sterilizing bottles, nipples & the whole shebang, so this avoided all of that.<br>
All my nieces & nephews were also breastfed, by their respective moms & all are doing quite well.</p>
<p>What was the point of the study?</p>
<p>If it does or doesn’t increase IQ, so what? It is a wonderful thing to do, if you can…don’t feel guilty if you can’t, but if able, do it, its benefits are truely wonderful</p>
<p>Just chiming in on the long nursers.</p>
<p>D was going on 4 years old when I weaned her because I had been nursing two then for 9 months and my body just couldn’t do it any more. </p>
<p>Was therefore determined to nurse S until he decided to quit. Summer after kindergarten he finally decided he was done. </p>
<p>Those days of nursing were some of the best of my life, because the sense of purpose and contribution was so clear. I guess that prolactin or whatever it’s called didn’t hurt either. I always used to think if we could bottle that stuff we’d have World Peace in 2 weeks.</p>
<p>As for the IQ, who the heck knows. Whether it mattered or not, I felt it was right. And doing something that I felt was right gave me mothering confidence. And mothering confidence, in my case, was a good thing.</p>
<p>Another really powerful thing is being ‘in synch’ with your baby. The whole dyad thing. The attunement of each to the other. </p>
<p>Sometimes I see women out with babies in public and the baby is sobbing in its hard plastic car-seat carrier, and the woman is trying to jiggle the baby or give it a pacifier or whatever, and my whole being is thinking, why is that baby not next to your body?!</p>
<p>I have always suspected that the connection is related to the fact that the more educated a woman is the more likely she is to breastfeed. (at least in industrialized nations). That being the case they are more likely to value education, read to their children, etc. As a result their children are more likely to achieve in school. I have no scientific evidence to back me up, it’s just my own theory.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom: another grad student who needs a thesis on something new, or another prof that needs to publish or a science dept. that needs to substantiate its grants for research. SiGH!</p>
<p>You can find references to some interesting studies here:
<a href=“http://www.lalecheleague.org/cbi/bibborn.html[/url]”>http://www.lalecheleague.org/cbi/bibborn.html</a></p>
<p>I like this one:
“Controlling for environmental variables and maternal intelligence, initiation of breastfeeding predicted scores on intelligence tests at three. Breastfeeding was associated with 4.6 point higher mean in children’s intelligence.”
Johnson DL et al. Breastfeeding and children’s intelligence. Psych Reports 1996;79:1179-85</p>
<p>I actually thought that the positive effect of long chain fatty acids in breastmilk on intelligence was widely accepted? Didn’t formula manufacturers attempt to add them to breastmilk substitutes back in the 1990’s?</p>
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<p>You go, SBmom!</p>
<p>
My babies were generally worn in a sling because <em>I</em> liked having them next to my body! 
(They typically liked it too, of course 
) That said, I think one can occasionally go too far in the AP direction, missing the forest for the trees.</p>
<p>There was this one staunch AP mom on a pareting site I belonged to years ago when I was preggo with my sixth. She was always bemoaning those clueless, out-of-sync moms who would DARE to leave their babies for 15 minutes with the dh’s while they ran to the store for a gallon of milk. <em>sigh</em> And they always referred to infant seats, swings, etc. as “mommy substitutes.” </p>
<p>Ironically, a few years later, she had some marital issues (I always thought that having kids in your bed for YEARS on end might have something to do with that… ), and <em>she</em> was the one who ended up leaving the house and leaving the kids with the dad. I was pretty shocked, given her rhetoric over the years. So, in the end, which was worse? A fifteen minute trip to the ATM or basically moving out on your kids?</p>
<p>Anyway, I do appreciate your sentiment and share it for the most part, but babies who are generally treasured and nurtured <em>will</em> survive a bit of time OUT of their moms’ arms.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>I practically wore my kids when they were infants. They were attached to me like glue until they were mobile, and even after that, still prefered to be nowhere else but with me (with H too, but sadly, somewhat less so as the teeny tinies).</p>
<p>They are both routinely described as incredibly well adjusted, independent and confident kids. I can’t help but think that their sense of well being and security was established as a result of those early bonds.</p>
<p>“My babies were generally worn in a sling because <em>I</em> liked having them next to my body!”</p>
<p>I was a slinger, too, because I was and remain selfish with my babies. I just posted on a cafe thread about the kitten that my daughter is now slinging her kitten in my old Maya Wrap!</p>
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I <em>saw</em> that post!!! OMG, how CUTE!!! :)</p>
<p>I actually had one baby, my second child, first daughter, who <em>DETESTED</em> the sling, the front pack, all of those “cuddly” items, even as the tiniest of newborns. It <em>CRUSHED</em> me! 
The funny and intriguing thing was, I could tell even when she was in utero that she LOATHED being confined in ANY way. She was in the classic position–head down, butt up and toward my belly button, and she’d PUSH and PUSH and PUSH so hard that I seriously thought my skin would TEAR into bits! She gave me the only stretch marks I ever got. When she was born and the nurses laid her out in the isolette, she laid STRAIGHT OUT (as straight out as a newborn can get!), not curled up in a tiny ball like a normal baby. To this day, she is claustrophobic. And to think, I knew it when…<em>lol</em></p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>berurah I agree with you completely; my point was that when someone never synchs up with their baby to begin with, then ‘obvious’ solutions (like: pick the baby up!) may never feel obvious to that mother.</p>
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<p>ITA. It just comes so naturally to some of us, doesn’t it? And not so easily to some others…</p>
<p>sorry if this is TMI- just move on ;)- but talking about the girls when they were babies, is helping me deal with that my youngest is a junior in high school!
( I feel like * I * am still a junior in high school sometimes-
Oh BTW today is my birthday! I am 49! * really just 49* - maybe that is the reason for the sentimentality)</p>
<p>my first was born when snuglis were popular- but didnt even weigh 4lbs when she came home- I was afraid I would break her leg trying to get her in it.
I mostly just carried her- with inthe football position or behind my back - sideways with her head sticking out ( she liked feeling pressure on her chest- but she liked to see where we were going)
I also had my H carry her in the snugli quite a bit- because I was nursing- the proximity to the food source was too distracting.
My oldest laid transverse in utero- I have a bicournate uterus- and she tied her cord in 3 knots- so I imagine after a while she couldn’t move very much.</p>
<p>But the 2nd OMG
she had her fist up underneath my ribcage poking at me.
When it was getting close to delivery and she was still feet first- they tried to turn her in the hospital ( before labor)- because of the bicornate uterus they had to make her do a flip, like a forward roll.
Yeah
So they get her moved and as soon as I get home she turns back again.
So the next week, I go in again, to have her turned ( did I mention this wasn’t the most comfortable thing?) Since it kinda raises your blood pressure, they then tell me, that they might keep me till delivery ( and oh yeah- It was Mothers Day, but since I didn’t get to eat anything, by the time they decide I can have something to eat, it is like 9pm, and all that is left is some lime chiffon jello ROFL)
So they let me go home again- and… wouldn’t you know it, she moved back again.
But by teh time I actually * was* in labor, she had dropped, and moved into the right position and everything. :)</p>
<p>But I did get a clue that she might be stubborn</p>
<p>But I think we should do whatever we can to continue to encourage parents to breastfeed ( I say parents- because I think there is a lot that dads can do to facilitate that)
The only thing, is that being I had both my babies at a university hospital- I saw a lot of high risk moms- some were/had been on drugs
I don’t think women who are taking anything that can be harmful to the baby, especially illegal drugs should be nursing- although I do think that there should be milk banks- because I think that some of these babies, especially the ones that are high risk, could really benefit from breast milk</p>