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Indiana Babies
Breastfeeding makes you smarter
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Re: Breastfeeding makes you smarter
Is this partly because breastfed babies tend to come from more educated families, and therefore they tend to do better in school because of parental support & involvement?
Also, good grades don't really necessarily equate to intelligence, right?
I hope I don't get flamed for saying that. But I'm thinking that more educated families might better understand the importance of BF and they might have a better support system to continue BF.
So maybe it's not necessarily just the BM itself that yields smart kids, but, that the families that tend to BF also tend to value the importance of education? I'm not saying this is true for every family - but as we look at population trends.
I would tend to agree with this.
Here's a scientific study for ya... I've noticied that when watching Teen Mom, the majority of the girls don't breastfeed and never even attempt at doing so. Or at least this is the way it appears via editing. As someone who is probably short on money, you would think they would since formula is so expensive. My guess is, since they're so young, they just aren't educated in the benefits of BFing. Since they're still in high school, it's not that the teen parents aren't smart, but instead a lack of education. Being teen parents may then also yield less support and involvement in school to their children due to the struggle of making ends meet, etc. I told ya, VERY scientific!
Data makes it really easy to jump to conclusions. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong.
I got better at picking apart facts in my job :-) ha
A study was posted on the AP board recently where the researchers had separated the study group into different socioeconomic classes. There was no difference in test scores, grades, etc between breastfed and formula fed kids in the same socioeconomic class, but kids in higher socioeconomic classes had higher test scores and grades. However, kids in higher socioeconomic classes were more likely to have been breastfed. I really do think it's more that people in higher socioeconomic classes are more likely to value education, and are also more likely to breastfeed, that you see studies that show that breastfed babies are smarter. Of course, I want to believe studies like this since I got so sick that I lost my supply when Ben was 8 weeks old, and we had to switch to formula.
Haha, Denice this bothers me so much, too. I went to a pretty varied socioeconomic high school and knew a lot of people who had kids while in HS or shortly after. None BF and I'm sure no one ever educated them on why it would be better for the baby. It boggles my mind that they don't get more information on it because, like you said, they'd save so much money.
Not sure about you guys too, but I had 2 different OBs during my pregnancy since we moved, and at both of them I was given tons of free stuff with formula brand names on them and free formula. If you don't know anything about BFing and you get this free formula stuff I'm sure you'd be more likely to go that route.
Also, come to think of it, I don't recall either of my doctors really talking to me about BFing. They asked if I planned to but that was about it. Maybe there should be more of a push for doctors to push for it.
These factors are always discussed in the studies, just not in the media reports of the studies.
The major thing here (as with ALL studies like this) is that CORRELATION DOES NOT PROVE CAUSATION. Just beacuse breastfed kids get better grades, doesn't mean that the breastfeeding CAUSED the better grades.
There are always extraneous variables which may confound the results, exactly like (engineer!) Kathy pointed out -- for example, the factors that influence a mother to breastfeed may be the same factors that influence academic performance.
It's soooooo annoying when news outlets report on some study like this and go ahead and establish a causal relationship. The only way you can definitively establish cause is in a controlled experiment, not in a cross-sectional study like this one.
#PerfectStrangers
2012 Races:
1/28 - Planet Adventure night trail 1/4-marathon - 1:25:47
3/24 - Sam Costa half marathon - 2:02:47
4/14 - Hoosier 10 miler - 1:25:21 (8:32) PR!
7/8 - XTERRA Freedom Fest Hawaii 10K
9/1 - Indianapolis Women's Half Marathon
10/20 - Indianapolis Marathon Relay
11/4 - Monumental Marathon (full marathon #2)
11/22 - Drumstick Dash 4.5mi
That's what I meant.
I'm not able to add anything new here, but as someone who considers herself very pro-BF, I hate reports like this. Not studies like this, but the reporting of them.
Re: Teen Mom - ITA. I wish they had better information.