A new study has found that babies that are breastfed for longer than six months have significantly better mental health in childhood.
While I think that breastfeeding is the best choice for both the mother and infant, I'm not sure that this study actually proves what the reports on it say it shows. Since I'm unwilling too cheap to pay for access to the original study I can only go by the news reports on it and all of the articles I could find spoke of breastfeeding rather than the feeding of breastmilk. It's unclear to me if this is comparing breastmilk (breastfeeding and expressed milk) to formula or if it's breastfeeding versus any bottle feeding. Is it really the nutrients in the breastmilk or couldn't the study also show that having the mother as the primary caretaker of the child for this time be just as likely a reason for the improved mental health of the child?
Yaa... does it take nursemaids into account?
Posted by vw bug at October 30, 2006 12:48 PM