Shouting 'Fire' in a Room of Scientists: Breastfeeding and Sensationalism
Article: http://huff.to/1g1kNvK
By Melissa Bartick, MD, MSc and Briana Jegier, PhD If you want to grab news headlines, all you have to do is say "breastfeeding has no effect on child well-being." It's like shouting "fire" in a crowded movie theater. You create a Jerry Springer spectacle of moms fighting other mothers about who is doing best for their children. But that's not the truth about who women are, or what science has to say to say about breastfeeding.
This week, a widely reported sibling study by Colen and Ramey concluded that breastfeeding has "no effect" on "child well-being." But, what's the truth here? To start with, there have been thousands of studies on breastfeeding and health outcomes, and the best and most effectively designed studies available today demonstrate that breastfeeding changes health risks for mothers and children. Strong evidence exists for a relationship between breastfeeding and SIDS, necrotizing enterocolitis (a deadly disease of premature infants), hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections, ear infections, diarrhea, Crohn's disease,ulcerative colitis, and acute leukemia. Several of these diseases have significant mortality rates and huge economic costs for families, the healthcare system, and society at large. But this study looked at only two physical diseases, asthma and obesity. Thus, for the authors to conclude that breastfeeding has "no effect on child well-being" is a gross overstatement and is overtly false.
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