Controversial research discovers hormones more important in health of growing infants
WOMEN SHOULD forget what they have been told about the health benefits of breastfeeding, researchers have said.
A controversial new study has concluded that, contrary to the view of many experts, breast is not necessarily best for children in the first months of life.
Prof Sven Carlsen, who led the Norwegian team of researchers, took the findings further by saying: “Baby formula is as good as breast milk.”
Prof Carlsen said what really affects the health of a growing infant was the hormone balance in the womb before birth, according to the research.
This in turn influences a woman’s ability to breastfeed, resulting in a misleading association between breastfeeding and child health, the researchers say.
“Pregnant women who have higher levels of androgens breastfeed less,” said Prof Carlsen.
“Probably this is a direct effect of hormones that simply limit nursing ability by reducing milk production in the breast.
“When you look at the epidemiological studies and try to strip away the other factors, it is really hard to find any substantial benefits among children who were breastfed as babies,” he added.
“Basically a mother who finds she has difficulty shouldn’t feel guilty – it probably is just the way it is, and her baby will not suffer for being fed formula milk. A mother should do what makes her happy.”
The only benefit from breastfeeding supported by genuine evidence was a “small IQ advantage”, according to the scientists.
And even this was yet to be properly confirmed.
Prof Carlsen’s team reviewed data from more than 50 international studies looking at the relationship between breastfeeding and health.
Most concluded that the more children were breastfed, the healthier they were.
On the surface this was correct, said Prof Carlsen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
But he added: “Even if this is statistically true, it is not because of breastfeeding itself. There are very few studies that have examined the underlying controls on breastfeeding ability.”
The largest study on breastfeeding was conducted in Belarus and involved more than 17,000 women and children who were monitored for six years.
It “cut the legs out from underneath most of the assertions that breastfeeding has health benefits”, according to the scientists.
For example, the study found no evidence that breastfeeding reduced the risk of asthma and allergies in children.
But, according to Prof Charlotte Wright, spokeswoman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in Britain, “This is irresponsible and overblown.
“This is a new and largely untested theory that does not seem to be supported by any good epidemiological evidence.”
The research is published in the January edition of the journal Acta Obstestricia and Gynecologia Scandinavica.