Breastfeeding Helps to Prevent Child Abuse

[Sagesgirl]

I am actually somewhat surprised to have not seen this here already. I heard it discussed on the radio Monday. I imagine it is kind of a "Duh" thing for many of us. Breastfeeding helps to promote a healthy attachment, and a healthy attachment helps reduce the likelihood of abuse.

Link: http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...ract/123/2/483

RESULTS. Of 512 children with substantiated maltreatment reports, >60% experienced ≥1 episode of maternally perpetrated abuse or neglect (4.3% of the cohort). The odds ratio for maternal maltreatment increased as breastfeeding duration decreased, with the odds of maternal maltreatment for nonbreastfed children being 4.8 times the odds for children breastfed for ≥4 months. After adjustment for confounding, the odds for nonbreastfed infants remained 2.6 times higher, with no association seen between breastfeeding and nonmaternal maltreatment. Maternal neglect was the only maltreatment subtype associated independently with breastfeeding duration.

CONCLUSION. Among other factors, breastfeeding may help to protect against maternally perpetrated child maltreatment, particularly child neglect.

I've been saying for a while now that, locally, we need to promote breastfeeding as a way to lower our rates of child abuse. I don't think it's a coincidence that our nursing rates are so much lower than the national average & our child abuse rates so much higher.

(Mind you, I'm not saying nursing will solve everything, but I do think it will help.)

[rmzbm]

Hmmm. Makes sense.

[ollineeba]

Thanks for posting that. Interesting

[Ironica]

Hm... I'd love to see the controlling for confounding factors. Is there any hint about causality here? Is breastfeeding protective against child neglect, or is it predictive of lower rates of neglect?

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by Ironica

Hm... I'd love to see the controlling for confounding factors. Is there any hint about causality here? Is breastfeeding protective against child neglect, or is it predictive of lower rates of neglect?

Great question! I just downloaded the article so I have to find time to really read it. In the Implications sections the authors do acknowledge the limitations of a cohort study with respect to causal inferences, and suggest assessing neglect/maltreatment in the randomised controlled PROBIT trial (Kramer et al - breastfeeding in Belarus) to get around confounding. I would love to see the results of that...

Confounders were pretty basic - age, binge alcohol consumption, unemployment, education, martial status etc. I can't wait to read it but must get through the report I'm supposed to be finishing tonight first!

[StoriesInTheSoil]

Interesting, thanks OP for posting. I'll DL and read it later. Might be a good blog topic!

[readytobedone]

Originally Posted by Ironica

Hm... I'd love to see the controlling for confounding factors. Is there any hint about causality here? Is breastfeeding protective against child neglect, or is it predictive of lower rates of neglect?

yes, good question. you'd definitely have to tease out the direction of causation. it's probably the case that women who choose to BF are already less at risk of abusing their kids.

but my DH actually hypothesized that BFing lowers risk of child abuse/child homicide when we were watching stuff about the caylee anthony case. he said he bets casey anthony didn't BF.

i thought it was really a smart idea--glad to see there is evidence for his theory!

[Sillygoose]

Reducing infant crying and maternal stress, those are two effects of breastfeeding, too -- I'll bet those help. Mmmm, that prolactin buzz. So nice. Like valium that you're not looked down upon for using.