Why breast is not always best

Did you breast or bottle feed your baby? I have some unfortunate news for you. Whichever you did, it turns out you were wrong. But before you throw your phone out of the window, read on, there’s some good news…

I am about to insult you. Get ready.

Did you bottle or breast-feed your baby?

Sorry, but either way, you made a bad choice for your child.

Shall we just end the conversation there?

Because it seems to me to be the logical step in the breastfeeding- bottle-feeding debate.

You see I’m about to tell you that there is no right or wrong.

There seem to just be shades of grey and degrees of – it-actually-doesn’t-really matter.

For years the experts, the media, the local health nurses and your own Mothers’groups have been imploring you to breast feed. The guilt if you could not do it or worse (gasp) chose not to was unparalleled. We heard tragic tales of women who committed suicide over their inability to meet this exacting standard, and no doubt all our lives have been touched by someone who’s battle with post-natal depression was exasperated by the pressure to do ‘the best for their baby’.

Now a new study has stated that perhaps we have been oversold on the benefits of breastfeeding. In fact, it actually gets worse than that.

The study tells us that the better indicator of long-term outcomes for children actually depends upon the education of the parents and their economic status – not whether they were breast or bottle-fed.

Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University, Cynthia Colen, compared three groups of children and compared a variety of different factors. These included their BMI, obesity, asthma, hyperactivity, attachment, behaviour, vocabulary, reading skills, math ability, scholastic competence and intelligence.

Most of us will assume the result would have been clear-cut in favour of the breastfed kids.

Now before you jump down my throat, that’s just what the media and health professionals have drilled into us, isn’t it?

Breast is best. We know that. We believe that. We feed upon that and we use that as ammunition in the judgment of other Mums.

Well this study might just bring a few of us down a notch.

Seems we were wrong. Whoops.

The study, which has been published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, concluded that when considering all families, yes, breast-feeding babies is the best policy. However, the last group, the one of siblings in which one was breast-fed and the other bottle-fed did not show any significant difference between the breast-fed and bottle-fed kids.

Here’s the kicker - the major difference was actually a higher prevalence of asthma in breast-fed children.

The study then took the parents' education, income and ethnicity into account and found that the more important factor in the long term to the health, educational and emotional outcomes of these children studied were education, child care, housing and income.

Now it is really super important to stress that the researcher Dr Colen said her study does not oppose the view that breastfeeding, in the short term, has clear health benefits for babies. We also know the health benefits to the Mums – there is a proven link that breastfeeding can reduce the risk of breast cancer. But Dr Colen said her results showed it was time to focus on other, more important factors that the worn out breast versus bottle debate.

“I’m not saying breast-feeding is not beneficial, especially for boosting nutrition and immunity in newborns,” Dr Colen said. “But if we really want to improve maternal and child health in this country, let’s also focus on things that can really do that in the long term – like subsidised day care, better maternity leave policies and more employment opportunities for low-income mothers that pay a living wage, for example.”

So enough of breast vs bottle – we’ve nullified that argument. Aren’t we just at the point now where we all do the best we can for our kids. Can’t we please be at that point?

Let’s not argue with each other. Let’s argue instead with the policy makers over these issues which really affect the long-term outcomes of our kids such as better access to child care and realising the potential of lower-income mothers.

You with me?

Can we start the new frontier in the Mummy Wars? Not breast against bottle. US against THEM.

What issue would you like to see the breast vs bottle debate replaced with?

You won't believe where some mothers have breastfed their babies. Click through these pics for some out-there examples of 'extreme breastfeeding'.