[BenDaglish]

It interests me that the conclusion of these studies is almost always presented as breastfeeding increasing IQ (or conveying health benefits or whatever). Surely, breastfeeding is the norm, and this headline should be "Bottle feeding linked to lower IQ"?

[DanBC]

Reframing it like that makes it seem like parents who formula-feed (because you can pump breast milk into a bottle) are harming their children.

There's already enough pressure on women to breast feed and I'm not sure it's useful to put more on. It'd be better to make sure women can get rapid access to breast feeding consultants.

[BenDaglish]

>makes it seem like parents who formula-feed are harming their children

Well, if the studies are to be believed, then that's exactly what is happening. I completely understand the "pressure on mothers" argument, but I'm not sure that really flies, especially given the (albeit more subtle these days due to legislation) opposite pressure put on mothers by Nestlé and the rest.

I also find the fact that initial breastfeeding rates vary so wildly by country (from 98% in Sweden though to 57% in the US) interesting, and again more likely to do with commercial and social pressures of the same kind than to do with physical differences between mothers worldwide. While-ever the argument is presented as "Breast is Best" rather than "Artificial is Worst", I suspect this will continue.

[DanBC]

I suspect that socially progressive Sweden makes it easy to breastfeed while repressive US (Facebook bizarely banned photographs of breastfeeding mothers) doesn't.

[skywhopper]

Breastfeeding has not always been the norm. At least in the US in the 70s doctors' advice was strongly against breastfeeding and encouraged switching to formula as soon as possible.