Breast-feeding raises children's IQs, study says

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I am sure you will do good.

It is kind of a different world when you become a mom and you thought you wouldn't care what other people say or think about your parenting, and then you find yourself feeling awkward or guilty about something like this. And you tell yourself that you shouldn't care or worry, but it doesn't always work!

Agree to that. You don't want to let other's bother you but you are human.

[Jenn! 918]

Ok, I must remember to not speak with any other mothers after I become one. It sounds way too stressful!!

I'm sure all of those parenting magazines don't help either.

I thought one day I'd get too old to have to worry about peer pressure.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

It's just hard because most parents want to do what is best for their child and unfortunately what is best in the minds of most people may not be the best for your child. Hard sometimes.

[chri'stina 190]

Ok, I must remember to not speak with any other mothers after I become one. It sounds way too stressful!!

I'm sure all of those parenting magazines don't help either.

I thought one day I'd get too old to have to worry about peer pressure.

Some friends I have who are moms are really nice and never put pressure on me about things. They are more laid back like me. You just have to avoid certain ones! Stay away from the highly opinionated family members if you have any (thankfully I don't!).

[Jenn! 918]

Ok, I must remember to not speak with any other mothers after I become one. It sounds way too stressful!!

I'm sure all of those parenting magazines don't help either.

I thought one day I'd get too old to have to worry about peer pressure.

Some friends I have who are moms are really nice and never put pressure on me about things. They are more laid back like me. You just have to avoid certain ones! Stay away from the highly opinionated family members if you have any (thankfully I don't!).

Oh man, that's all of them!

[chri'stina 190]

Ok, I must remember to not speak with any other mothers after I become one. It sounds way too stressful!!

I'm sure all of those parenting magazines don't help either.

I thought one day I'd get too old to have to worry about peer pressure.

Some friends I have who are moms are really nice and never put pressure on me about things. They are more laid back like me. You just have to avoid certain ones! Stay away from the highly opinionated family members if you have any (thankfully I don't!).

Oh man, that's all of them!

Then maybe the words "shut up" will be good to use.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think everyone would agree that breast milk is the best for babies because of it's content. But the reason it is controversial is because often on VJ people post news articles that support their ideology(look at the politics thread for instance). So women who either chose not to breastfeed or had real problems with it can sometimes feel annoyed about it.

Stina, what would OT be like if we steered clear of controversy?

I'm sorry if this article rubs some mother's here the wrong way... that wasn't my intention. It was in yesterday's LA Times. Had the article said that the study showed a lowering of the IQ with children who are breastfed, I would have posted it as well.

[GabiandVi 34]

There are studies that suggest that we can increase our child's imagination if we buy this product or that product.

As for this study, it refers to verbal IQ at age 6. There does seem to be some correlation with sucking and speech development. It has to do with exercising the parts of the mouth used to form speech. Sucking a breast helps speech development while sucking a pacifier seems to hinder it some. I don't see any mention of factoring in that aspect in this study. (My daughter takes a pacifier. Her speech is developing a little on the early side of normal, but she is very unclear in many word sounds.)

I wanted to breastfeed because of the immunities and the bonding. Unfortunately, no pump worked for me and even though I was able to bring my daughter to work, I was not able to feed her at each feeding, so I had to suppliment with formula. Once they start on bottles, they usually reject the breast, and my daughter followed the norm and rejected me by 4 months.

I'm not worried. First, I don't want a genius. I've never met a happy genius. (Of course if she were a genius I would be proud of her and love her, but I do not think she is.) But also, I believe there are much more effective and direct ways of developing my daughter's intelligence: reading to her, exposing her to different languages, exposing her to different experiences, etc.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

There are studies that suggest that we can increase our child's imagination if we buy this product or that product.

As for this study, it refers to verbal IQ at age 6. There does seem to be some correlation with sucking and speech development. It has to do with exercising the parts of the mouth used to form speech. Sucking a breast helps speech development while sucking a pacifier seems to hinder it some. I don't see any mention of factoring in that aspect in this study. (My daughter takes a pacifier. Her speech is developing a little on the early side of normal, but she is very unclear in many word sounds.)

I wanted to breastfeed because of the immunities and the bonding. Unfortunately, no pump worked for me and even though I was able to bring my daughter to work, I was not able to feed her at each feeding, so I had to suppliment with formula. Once they start on bottles, they usually reject the breast, and my daughter followed the norm and rejected me by 4 months.

I'm not worried. First, I don't want a genius. I've never met a happy genius. (Of course if she were a genius I would be proud of her and love her, but I do not think she is.) But also, I believe there are much more effective and direct ways of developing my daughter's intelligence: reading to her, exposing her to different languages, exposing her to different experiences, etc.

Interesting insight. We were about to give up ourselves because our baby spent his 1st week of life in intensive care. Even though we were using the breast pump and bringing in bottles, he had gotten used to formula and would get frustrated when his mom would bring him to her breast. It took a lot of patience and perseverance to finally get him completely off the bottle and solely on breast milk. Once his mom goes back to work, more than likely he'll have to be weaned, but we're hoping to keep him nursing at least until he's 6 months old.

[DeadPoolX 9]

Call me crazy, but I think a child's intelligence and ability in school, work (when older) and life have more to do with the parental interaction and genetic IQ than whether or not the kid sucked mom's breasts for however long. I'm not downplaying the proposed benefits of breast milk on a child's physical functions, but to say someone's son or daughter could be "smarter" simply because of the breast feeding seems a little unrealistic to me.

After all, if breast milk really did have those "intellect-enhancing" properties, some company would've figured this out by now and copyright the process to obtain breast milk (not formula) to sell in stores and online for mothers who either can't or won't breast feed themselves. Considering how "fads" go and that everyone is in a mad dash to make sure their kid is the "best and brightest" on the block, you can be sure whatever company did this -- if the information proved to be accurate -- would make quite a bit of money.

But I don't see it happening. Why? Probably because it's unproven and the only real method of seeing if it has any effect would be to study children who were breastfed and weened on formula all the way through their teenage years and into adulthood. Such a study would take an enormous amount of time, effort and above all, money. So I don't see a whole lot coming out of this, except three divisions -- those who believe in it, those who don't believe in it, and then those who really don't care at all.

[Jenn! 918]

They do mention that they're not sure whether the effects are caused by the breast milk of the act of breast feeding.

[GabiandVi 34]

They do mention that they're not sure whether the effects are caused by the breast milk of the act of breast feeding.

I saw that, but do they allow that the "verbal" intelligence might rather be speech development rather than intelligence? Just because a child cannot verbalize things yet does not mean that he/she cannot process the concepts.

I actually find it easier to believe that the content of breastmilk might increase intelligence rather than the physical act of breastfeeding. But I question whether the study only shows that breastfed children are able to verbalize better than those who were not breastfed. Not that they are more intelligent.

It's an interesting article, and I don't completely discount it, though my child only breastfed for about 4 months. I'm not going to worry about it, but I believe it might be possible that she was deprived of a few IQ points as a result. However, I'm not convinced it is so.

[rebeccajo 14]

...... Once they start on bottles, they usually reject the breast, and my daughter followed the norm and rejected me by 4 months.....

Your baby rejected feeding at your breast. Not 'you'.

I realize you probably didn't mean it exactly the way you typed it. But in a woman's head, and in the heads of many people, infants need the breast to bond with mother. I just don't believe that is true. Most of my generation were bottle fed and I'd daresay there are equal numbers of us who love our mothers as today's breastfed children. You still hold your child in your arms when it nurses, whether it's by breast or bottle. You can choose to do that silently; you can speak to the child; sing to the baby; whatever you choose.

The only real-life experience I can offer up is my own son. He was completely bottle fed and never suckled at all. He was extradordinarily healthy, never having so much as a cold until he was 18 months old, which flew in the face of the theory that breast milk increases a childs immunities. He will be 20 in June and has remained very healthy and robust; he rarely contracts a cold; has had the flu three times in his lifetime; and has never been in the hospital at all. I don't know his IQ, but he consistently tested off the charts for every standardized test he ever took in school. He graduated with a 3.85 average from high school; his ACT scores were impressive; and he managed to obtain enough academic scholarships to attend college totally free this past year. As I mentioned earlier, he was on the Deans List both semesters.

There are no 'geniuses' in my family. I am of average intelligence; same with his father. Both sides of the family have average health profiles with the exception of my maternal bloodline which shows a proclivity for very long life (up into the mid-90's for many persons).

I say brains are just what God gave you. I think there are enough real-life geniuses out there whose family heritage bears that out. We can't 'genetically engineer' our children. And we shouldn't allow parental competitiveness to make us feel like 'bad' parents if we don't or can't follow the current 'norms'.

[GabiandVi 34]

...... Once they start on bottles, they usually reject the breast, and my daughter followed the norm and rejected me by 4 months.....

Your baby rejected feeding at your breast. Not 'you'.

I realize you probably didn't mean it exactly the way you typed it. But in a woman's head, and in the heads of many people, infants need the breast to bond with mother. I just don't believe that is true. Most of my generation were bottle fed and I'd daresay there are equal numbers of us who love our mothers as today's breastfed children. You still hold your child in your arms when it nurses, whether it's by breast or bottle. You can choose to do that silently; you can speak to the child; sing to the baby; whatever you choose.

The only real-life experience I can offer up is my own son. He was completely bottle fed and never suckled at all. He was extradordinarily healthy, never having so much as a cold until he was 18 months old, which flew in the face of the theory that breast milk increases a childs immunities. He will be 20 in June and has remained very healthy and robust; he rarely contracts a cold; has had the flu three times in his lifetime; and has never been in the hospital at all. I don't know his IQ, but he consistently tested off the charts for every standardized test he ever took in school. He graduated with a 3.85 average from high school; his ACT scores were impressive; and he managed to obtain enough academic scholarships to attend college totally free this past year. As I mentioned earlier, he was on the Deans List both semesters.

There are no 'geniuses' in my family. I am of average intelligence; same with his father. Both sides of the family have average health profiles with the exception of my maternal bloodline which shows a proclivity for very long life (up into the mid-90's for many persons).

I say brains are just what God gave you. I think there are enough real-life geniuses out there whose family heritage bears that out. We can't 'genetically engineer' our children. And we shouldn't allow parental competitiveness to make us feel like 'bad' parents if we don't or can't follow the current 'norms'.

You are exactly right. I, too, was bottle fed, and am extremely healthy. I always say it's that good old peasant stock. I also love my mommy. She is a saint! She had 8 children and only breastfed one of us. The seventh child. I think it came back in vogue at the time of her birth, but for the 8th, she said she had all these older children to help her feed the baby. She couldn't see how she could afford the time it took to breastfeed him when she had other options. He's probably the smartest of the lot, though if he has a rival it is the seventh child.

When my little brat "rejected" my breast, I was a little depressed about the whole bonding thing, etc., but I was also depressed about the costs of formula and the loss of a natural weight loss program I don't think she is a genius, but I'm not too worried about her intelligence.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I am of average intelligence.

I know average, RJ, and you are not average.