Alright, I read both articles. (Hope you did too.) I think this is going to be a case of reading into it what you want to.
Some points of fact... Of the 8000 in the study, only 25% were sibsets, so 2000. We can leave "large-scale study" up for interpretation. They also don't address WHY one child was BF and another FF.
And it's probably also worth noting that the study still says "their results matched those of other studies advocating that the benefits of breast-feeding outweigh those of bottle-feeding" for the whole study group.
And the first article starts out by admitting the bias of the writing staff and ends with an argument against breastfeeding on the basis of feminism, so consider the source. I mean, seriously.
I know most of you think I'm all anti-FF, so whatever. I think everyone here (as far as I can tell) is just trying to do what is best for their families. And THAT is a more compelling argument for the comparison between sibsets - they both/all come from the same family and the same parents, who are equally likely to do all that they think is right for both/all their children.
Alright, I read both articles. (Hope you did too.) I think this is going to be a case of reading into it what you want to.
Some points of fact... Of the 8000 in the study, only 25% were sibsets, so 2000. We can leave "large-scale study" up for interpretation. They also don't address WHY one child was BF and another FF.
And it's probably also worth noting that the study still says "their results matched those of other studies advocating that the benefits of breast-feeding outweigh those of bottle-feeding" for the whole study group.
And the first article starts out by admitting the bias of the writing staff and ends with an argument against breastfeeding on the basis of feminism, so consider the source. I mean, seriously.
I know most of you think I'm all anti-FF, so whatever. I think everyone here (as far as I can tell) is just trying to do what is best for their families. And THAT is a more compelling argument for the comparison between sibsets - they both/all come from the same family and the same parents, who are equally likely to do all that they think is right for both/all their children.
The articles may have bias--the study itself doesn't claim any sort of bias or argue against breastfeeding based on feminism.
And 2000 pairs, while not huge, is still large enough that you would think there would at least be a small difference in some of those metrics, if breastfeeding really was head and shoulders superior to formula feeding.
Again, I breastfeed because it works for my family. But it pisses me off that I keep seeing that if a study suggests that formula may, in fact, allow children to be just as healthy and smart as breastfed children, that study must be flawed and the researchers corrupt. Some of the previous studies showing the "benefits/advantages/whatever you want to call them" of breastfeeding are horribly flawed for failing to control for all the commonly-understood variables between the groups as a whole, and yet those results that shine positively on BF-ing are never scrutinized and criticized...
This is a good time to be a mom--lots of choices. Lots of freedom. Lots of information to help guide your choices.
But it pisses me off that I keep seeing that if a study suggests that formula may, in fact, allow children to be just as healthy and smart as breastfed children, that study must be flawed and the researchers corrupt. Some of the previous studies showing the "benefits/advantages/whatever you want to call them" of breastfeeding are horribly flawed for failing to control for all the commonly-understood variables between the groups as a whole, and yet those results that shine positively on BF-ing are never scrutinized and criticized...
This is a good time to be a mom--lots of choices. Lots of freedom. Lots of information to help guide your choices.
This. All of this. Thank you for having the words to express what I'm thinking. Words are hard.
Re: Breast feeding benefits overstated.
Just a thought!
https://evolutionaryparenting.com/is-breast-really-best-the-debate-doesnt-end-here/
The question of how long these babies were breastfed is really huge, IMO.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
I think this is going to be a case of reading into it what you want to.
Some points of fact... Of the 8000 in the study, only 25% were sibsets, so 2000. We can leave "large-scale study" up for interpretation. They also don't address WHY one child was BF and another FF.
And it's probably also worth noting that the study still says "their results matched those of other studies advocating that the benefits of breast-feeding outweigh those of bottle-feeding" for the whole study group.
And the first article starts out by admitting the bias of the writing staff and ends with an argument against breastfeeding on the basis of feminism, so consider the source. I mean, seriously.
I know most of you think I'm all anti-FF, so whatever. I think everyone here (as far as I can tell) is just trying to do what is best for their families. And THAT is a more compelling argument for the comparison between sibsets - they both/all come from the same family and the same parents, who are equally likely to do all that they think is right for both/all their children.
And 2000 pairs, while not huge, is still large enough that you would think there would at least be a small difference in some of those metrics, if breastfeeding really was head and shoulders superior to formula feeding.
Again, I breastfeed because it works for my family. But it pisses me off that I keep seeing that if a study suggests that formula may, in fact, allow children to be just as healthy and smart as breastfed children, that study must be flawed and the researchers corrupt. Some of the previous studies showing the "benefits/advantages/whatever you want to call them" of breastfeeding are horribly flawed for failing to control for all the commonly-understood variables between the groups as a whole, and yet those results that shine positively on BF-ing are never scrutinized and criticized...
This is a good time to be a mom--lots of choices. Lots of freedom. Lots of information to help guide your choices.