Breastfeeding Vs Bottle Feeding Essay

Words: 4539
Pages: 19

Introduction

The controversial decision between breastfeeding or formula feeding is commonly faced by mothers today. Many mothers breastfeed due to the traditional and age-old belief that breastfeeding is the natural way in which infants were intended to be fed. However, societies exponential growth in food production has led to the production of infant formulae and has left many mothers questioning to which form of feeding is truly best for their children. However, despite the abundant research conducted in this area, this decision remains one of controversy.

There are various well-known positives and negatives towards breastfeeding and formula feeding with regards to general circumstances. It is commonly understood that breastfeeding is more of an intimate process than formula feeding and therefore aids in creating greater
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1999. Breastfeeding and cognitive development: a meta analysis. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 70: 525-535.

In this meta analysis, various results from numerous studies were compared and a study was done on the cognitive developmental differences between formula-fed and breastfed children. Of the 15 cofactors that were desirable to control within this study such as socioeconomic status, maternal education and birth weight, studies were only done on children that met and matched at least 5 of these covariates. When such factors were adjusted, a significant difference in cognitive development could be seen in breast-fed infants over formula-fed infants between the ages of 6 to 23 months. The increase of cognitive function in breast-fed infants could be seen throughout the different age groups. In studying the neurological benefits of breastmilk and formula on both premature and full-term infants, results, along with the comparison of previous studies' results, also proved breastmilk benefited premature babies significantly more than full-term