Will Formula Feeding Harm My Baby?

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Science has not demonstrated that breastfeeding is medically superior to formula-feeding. The most respected medical journals are replete with contradictory conclusions about breastfeeding’s impact: for every study linking it to better health, another finds it to be irrelevant, weakly significant, or inextricably tied to other unmeasured or unmeasurable factors. For virtually every outcome analyzed, including ear and respiratory infections, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cognitive development, leukemia, cancer, pre-term infant health, asthma, allergies, and mother-infant bonding, the evidence is widely variable. Multiple studies indicate that breastfeeding reduces the risk of gastrointestinal infection (such as diarrhea or vomiting); PROBIT, a large study lauded for its design and reliability, found that one in twenty-five bottle-fed babies was at greater risk to have one or more episodes of such infection in a year.  However, scant research supports claims that breastfeeding or formula-feeding have any impact on other outcomes, such as bed-wetting, eczema, growth pains, inflammatory bowel disease, sleep-related breathing disorders, social mobility, stereoacuity, stress, and urinary tract infection. Significant data indicate that breastfeeding might actually increase the risk of allergy and asthma for particular children. A recent study demonstrated that expanded maternity leave mandates in Canada led to increased duration of both partial and exclusive breastfeeding but not to improved health outcomes.