New BF study and question...

[Court]

Just came across this article about a 20 year study linking breastfeeding to significantly lower bad cholesterol later in life. What confuses me is that they say it's because the rapid growth caused by formula is detrimental. Um, my baby grew very rapidly on breastmilk alone, which I know is common. It's so common, there's usually a chapter is bf books about "is my baby too chubby?, etc." So, any of you science-minded ones out there wanna clear this up for me? And yay for the study btw.

[wombat]

I'm no scientist but am a compulsive reader. My understanding is that BM contains cholesterol while formula doesn't. And that ff babies have problems dealing with cholesterol later on in life when they're exposed to it. It's like that early exposure that breastfed babies had to cholesterol has a protective effect. I've also heard that breastfed babies have lower blood pressure later on.

I looked at the article and I don't understand why they don't mention the TYPE of fats in BM and formula. They're quite different. You know BM has that DHA plus other fats that promote brain development.

I think it's much easier to overfeed a baby using a bottle. I mean they only have to chew on the nipple and milk comes out. Plus caregivers are prone to having baby finish a bottle, or they have an expectation that baby should drink 24-36 oz of formula cause the books say so. When I was pumping and bottlefeeding my dd, she typically took less than what the books said she should but she was gaining weight acceptably. You don't have a lot of these issues when you breastfeed.

I think your 'chubby' breastfed baby is quite safe. I think the type of fats your baby got can only be protective.

[sntm]

I haven't read the primary article, and child growth/development is not my area, but I would think that part of the difference is based on excessive growth in an individual child. So, if your child was chubby on BM, she would be much chubbier on formula. Formula increases the growth rate of each individual child, who may naturally be prone to skinniness or chubbiness as an infant (no reflection on later weight, though.)

Part of the difference is also due to higher protein content in formula, which is associated with more rapid growth (maybe a downfall of Adkin's like diets also?)

[Court]

Ok, thanks so much you guys, that makes a lot more sense. I was a gigantic baby on formula, though not nearly as big as my bf son when he was a baby. I wish they would elaborate more in articles like this. It sort of suggests that breastfed babies are small or something.

[rareimer]

that part got me too...alot of what i have read says that breastfed babies usually start out much chubbier than their formula-fed counterparts, but around 6 months or so, they start to slow down and "lean out"...and by a year are much leaner than formula-fed babies.

my jas was a huge chubber when she was wee-little, but now at 14 months, she is smaller than the majority of babies her age.

that comment had confused me as well.