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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the mmmmmmmm-lunch! dept.

In 2013, 81.1 percent of U.S. mothers said they started out breast-feeding their baby. That's up from 75 percent in 2008, and 70 percent in 2000, according to the CDC.

[...] 52 percent of U.S. mothers said they were still breast-feeding their infants when the babies were 6 months old, and 30 percent said they were still breast-feeding when the babies reached 1 year.

How should society handle breastfeeding in public and the workplace? Should there be any restrictions on the age of the child?

Breastfeeding has obvious benefits for a child's development, but breast milk is also a fluid of the body that can carry disease.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-still-breastfeeds-daughter-aged-4881835

http://www.livescience.com/55846-breast-feeding-mothers-united-states.html


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:59PM (#392626)

    Most of the "obvious" touted benefits have not stood up to scientific scrutiny (reduced asthma, different cognitive development, etc.), much like touted benefits to vitamin supplements and such. It is obvious from the "it just seems right" perspective, but not from real statistical significance benefit in studies (just like a lot of food/nutrition studies, which is not surprising because we're really talking about food/nutrition).

    So, no, I'd say most of the benefits are not "obvious", at least not the baby health and development benefits.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by jdavidb on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:03PM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:03PM (#392629) Homepage Journal

    My wife had surgery prior to meeting me which precluded her being able to breastfeed fully, although she certainly gave it all she could. On top of that, one of our children had a severe protein intolerence when he was born that would have precluded being able to digest human milk. Formula is a fantastic invention and is the reason my children are alive. It also means I got to spend some enjoyable but exhausted hours when they were babies feeding them in the middle of the night and reading and posting online. I have definitely not seen any ill effects on them from having used formula.

    I'm sure there are benefits to human milk. I'm sure there are benefits to nursing rather than merely pumping [newser.com]. And I'm sure that people should be allowed to make their own decisions on this: do I want to breastfeed or not? do I want to have a breastfeeding policy in my restaurant or not? do I want to print a note on the formula I manufacture encouraging people to breastfeed or not? etc.

    --
    ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:18PM

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday August 24 2016, @05:18PM (#392670) Journal

      I'm sure there are benefits to human milk.

      I haven't looked at this research in a few years, but as far as I know their are only limited proven benefits, mostly having to do with the special milk (colostrum) of the first week.

      I'm sure there are benefits to nursing rather than merely pumping.

      THIS. A few years back when I was dealing with my wife freaking out that our infant wasn't as interested in breastfeeding compared to bottlefeeding, I spent quite a bit of time obsessing over trying to determine what the research really said. I probably read 50 studies on breastmilk and breastfeeding, and skimmed a lot more. (Not news stories -- actual medical studies.) One thing that you realize right away is that a lot of these studies have really poor designs. But another thing that's very apparent is little effort has been made in most studies to separate the act of trying breastfeeding (i.e., with all the mother-child intimacy, etc.) from the effects of breastmilk itself.

      Again, this was a few years back, but I was only able to find maybe 3 or 4 studies that actually addressed this distinction and compared breastfed babies to those who were bottle-fed breast milk. And basically in all of those studies, there was no statistically significant difference between those who were bottle-fed breast milk vs. those who were bottle-fed formula. (Actually, I think I saw ONE study that did find some sort of tiny "immune system" difference for babies who were bottle-fed breast milk, which basically amounted to babies contracting one less cold in their first 3 years or something.)

      Most of the claimed developmental effects, etc. are potentially due to increased contact, bonding, etc. that comes from the act of breastfeeding, not the milk itself. But despite there being basically no evidence of a significant effect, we see many working mothers pumping away during their every coffee break trying to squeeze out a few more ounces, or the "black market" in breast milk (with its potentially for disease and contamination, particularly if not stored properly) for those desperate mothers who can't seem to produce enough.

      Add to all of this potentially unnecessary stress is the fact that milk production seems significantly affected by excess stress. My wife was told by some doctor at some point that the first 90 days were most important in breastfeeding (again, I have NO idea where they got that magic number), so she was determined to make it to 90 days giving as much "natural" milk as possible. But it was difficult, because the baby wasn't interested in sucking hard enough on the breast, so my wife spent hours each day pumping just to provide that "magic elixir" for the baby. (And still we had to supplement with some formula.) In the place where we lived at that time, it seemed like a "badge of honor" to breastfeed, and when other mothers saw my wife pull out a bottle when she was out, she was given dirty looks. (At least a few times, she actually apologized and said, "But it's actually breast milk!")

      I was convinced for a number of reasons that this problem was primarily psychological from all the stress we put on women to produce this milk... and indeed, on the VERY NEXT DAY after the 90-day window passed, suddenly my wife started producing almost twice as much milk, and the baby started eating more easily at the breast. Within a week or so after that magical "90-day deadline" stressfully put on her by a doctor, she had stopped pumping entirely, and the baby was getting more breast milk than ever. Coincidence? Perhaps.

      From my own experience and research, I honestly think this whole breast-milk emphasis has risen to a level of hysteria (at least amount some communities), targeting women at their most vulnerable time and convincing them that they need to "go the extra mile" when they are most stressed, or else risk significant harm to a baby. And that's just dishonest. (It also leads to the La Leche League militants: I remember reading stories online of women who ended up with kids in the hospital after losing significant weight rather than feed them formula from a bottle. To me, that's basically child abuse.) There seems to be good research suggesting that mother-child intimacy is important in the first few months, so I'm all for trying to breastfeed as much as is reasonable. But the measured benefits of breast milk itself are quite minor and potentially not statistically significant (possibly even just the result of sample bias [philly.com], since breastfeeding moms tend to be more well-off and in better health [nytimes.com] on average).

      TL;DR -- I'm all for breastfeeding if the mother wants to, but I'm even more for mothers (and fathers!) spending more "quality time" with infants. But we need to stop shaming and stressing out mothers over breastmilk. I also think we need a lot more research to justify this whole breast-pumping [psmag.com] thing or buying breast milk from strangers over the internet.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:08PM (#392631)

    I haven't looked at the literature, but I would bet you are correct. I just base that on my sad but true heuristic, in general, there is very little high quality info about nutrition/health available and much pseudoscience has been generated to fill that hole.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:18PM (#392639)

    Maternal antibodies are a pretty obvious benefit.