… The truth about the health benefits of breast-feeding is more complicated than most people realize.

This spring, the federal Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) published a report that evaluated the research on breast-feeding and children’s health. Assembling the data involved a year and a half of combing through more than 9,000 studies and reviews, selecting those that met strict quality criteria.

Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who chairs the breast-feeding task force of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), said the result is the “most comprehensive, all-inclusive” document on breast-feeding in developed countries. “It’s an excellent report,” she said…

This inability to prove cause and effect is a problem that plagues virtually all breast-feeding research. The problem is that women who breast-feed, as a whole, are very different from their bottle-feeding counterparts: wealthier, older and more educated, for starters. Although researchers are able to adjust their results for such factors, there’s no way to adjust for every difference. Women who breast-feed are probably more health-conscious in numerous ways, which could explain why breast-fed children tend to be healthier.

The evidence is more suggestive in some areas than in others. “It’s well proven that breast-feeding is effective at reducing infections in the newborn period, as long as children continue to be breast-fed,” said Dr. Lawrence Gartner, past chairman of the AAP’s breast-feeding group. The reason is that breast milk contains antibodies and other agents that prevent bacteria, toxins and viruses the baby has swallowed from attaching to the lining of the throat and gut…

In some cases, health differences may be related to the bottle itself. For example, breast-fed babies may be less likely to be obese later in life because overzealous bottle-feeding interferes with babies’ ability to stop eating when they’re full, said Dr. Laurence Grummer-Strawn, chief of maternal and child nutrition for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

Dr. Wendy Slusser, a pediatrician and director of the UCLA Breastfeeding Resource Program, said she didn’t understand the need for a 400-page report on breast-feeding and health. “Breast-feeding is better than formula… isn’t that enough?” she asked…

Source: Los Angeles Times, CA
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