Breast Milk vs Formula: Which is Better? 14 points we can all agree on
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2024
- Vinay Prasad, MD MPH; Physician & Professor
Hematologist/ Oncologist
Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Medicine
Author of 450+ Peer Reviewed papers, 2 Books, 2 Podcasts, 100+ op-eds.
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I breastfed five babies, even one with pku! Breastfeeding has many benefits not included here, such as helping the uterus get back down to shape/size, the release of prolactin (the mothering/feel-good hormone), not to mention sharpening a new mom's sense of immediately responding to her newborn. Since breastmilk is lower in fat, it requires more frequent feeding, and new moms who are breastfeeding quickly learn to respond to those more frequent requests to eat. This builds the mother-baby relationship. Baby learns that when he/she calls for mama, she responds; moms learn that when they respond to baby, everyone is happier. It is a beautiful dance! For me, I feel 100% that nursing made me a better mom. Not sure others understand, but I am convicted on this. Happy mothering to all you moms out there! It is the greatest call on your life!
You’re right.
I agree! It works for a myriad of reasons, bonding most of all!
I agree with you. My wife breastfed all 7 of our children. I think the problem here is that many of the points you raise are going to be nearly impossible to study in any kind of randomized controlled research, which good science relies upon, and therefore difficult to prove definitively.
I agree with your overall sentiment, but breastmilk isn't lower in fat. Macro-nutrients of mature milk and formula are almost identical. If you're referring to colostrum or transitional milk you'd be correct, but they're only temporary. I'm an RN, IBCLC fwiw.
I breast fed both of my sons, though the circumstances were very different for each and neither ended up being exclusively bf. It turned out that the first child was essentially poisoned by my inability to metabolize the dose of narcotic (Demerol!!) they gave me after birth (though it was decades before that was figured out) and he was airlifted for emergency care on the second day. I thought I was doing what was best but he was screaming (in pain likely) and the pediatrician thought he must be hungry and advised me to start thickening my breast milk with rice cereal at six weeks(!) which we did. What we didn’t know was that he had a liver disease which had been provoked by my taking acetaminophen during pregnancy and he was profoundly ill and undiagnosed for some time. He was born in ‘87.
You just never know, you know?
Why is the breast cancer reduction in breastfeeding women never brought up? Is it because we risk getting called insensitive to those who can’t or chose not to have children? The risk of breast cancer is reduced by 4.3% for every 12 months of breasting, breastfeeding also reduces the risk of Triple-Negative breast cancer (20%) and in the carriers of BRCA1 mutations (22-55%). We talk a lot about the benefits to children, but there are definite health benefits to mothers as well. After all, the breast is there for the feeding of children where possible.
Absolutely!! My thoughts, too! Isn’t he an oncologist?! I’m really surprised that this wasn’t mentioned.
My guess would be confounding.
*please thumbs this up so Vinay sees this and makes a video response*
Hey Vinay, I'd love to know your take on the generally "accepted" and "recommended" vaccines to give to children 6 and under (from birth). I'd also be curious to know about the vaccines recommended to pregnant mothers (while pregnant).
What are the most useful vaccines to take and are they all neccessary? Do they all offer low risk and high reward per se?
Say NO to vaccines...our bodies r designed to heal themselves and breast is best! Has everything growing babies need for health
This would be really interesting
PLEASE do a video on this!
He kind of did this already, halfway, in response to RFK Jr's interview with Rogan, but it would be nice to see him do a deep dive on it.
My daughter who is a new mom, has a book by Dr. Paul Thomas, about vaccine recommendations.
My Mother gave me formula. I am 70 years old and very healthy and no meds. Thankful! I nursed for five years having 4 children, they would not take formula. Either way gets the job done. No judgement.
The formula ingredients were WAY different 70 years ago 🤣🤣🤣 Not helpful advice granny...
Yeah, my husband is 70 and healthy…found his formula recipe in his baby book. Canned pet milk and Karo syrup….😜 I breast fed my kids, didn’t really like it till my third. My daughter/in-laws have all nursed with various success. I’m supportive, but certainly wouldn’t judge their choices…no judgement
@@johnmartinsen963yeah! Way worse! Se my comment above.
@@diane5299 Pet milk was human grade (like evaporated milk without sweetener) and the karo syrup was better than modern corn syrup (GMO corn and glyphosate), so you clearly know nothing about modern food ingredients that should be avoided unless facing starvation.
@@johnmartinsen963 I agree 100% When I first learned I was a Pet Milk baby I was horrified. But for the reasons you state, I later realized it was much healthier than what infants are being fed today. I was the first of 5 and all of us were fed Pet milk formula and are still around today. It is possible that for some time I was breast fed, but don't have enough evidence that was the case.
Breastfeeding has Benefits that formula can not duplicate.
Perhaps in the immediate time frame but not after 1. There's literally no difference between formula/breastmilk kids.
@@tianamarie989
Formula milk is literally different than breast milk.
So does bottle feeding - we just don’t count maternal rest as a benefit.
There’s also heath benefits to the mother to breastfeed. Helps the uterus contract, lowers the rate of some cancers, breastfeeding produces oxytocin, helps mom bond with the baby.
Breastmilk changes if the baby is sick and adjusts to the baby’s needs. Babies saliva tells moms body what to make.
Breastfeed infants are tend to be held more. (A lot of parents I know who formula feed prop up the babies bottle/ hand it to them) Breastmilk is more calorie light so cluster feeding also happens. Also breastfeeding is more protective agains SIDS.
So many pros that can be mentioned.
It transfers mothers antibodies making the babys immune system stronger too
I can't believe we are asking this question. Doctors shouldn't be oblivious to human evolution. It is always highly unlikely that artificial interventions will be better than the evolved practice. Most of the contentious questions around breastfeeding are actually social controversies which have little to do with human biology.
Yes they really are that out of touch with biology. They really think all interventions are equal to what your body would do on its own and that you need studies to show your body is good enough.
I breast fed 3 children and bottle fed 1 who was adopted, if i could have breast fed him too i would have. Its certainly much easier and always on hand at the right temperature
How could you have breastfed him? Thanks
It's called wet nursing. You either carry-on breastfeeding from one baby to the next or if a baby nurses long enough it can bring about your milk letting down. Ultimately it's all about the hormones.
Just like some babies in the Nick you have a teeny tiny tube put in their mouths to feed them you would use that tube let the baby latch onto the nipple and again it can bring about a women's milk.
Would a prolactin injection have started lactation again?
@@theflamboyantgrandma1890 i had heard i could start lactating again and i did try to put him to the breast but soon gave up and just bottle fed him
And its cheaper!
One of the biggest surprises I had as a parent was just how difficult and taxing breastfeeding was, at least in our case. If there was 1 area we could have used more support, that was it.
Breastfed my first right up until I birthed my second born. I planned to tandem feed as I didn’t want to force my first to wean before he was ready but to my surprise he stopped just shy of me giving birth to his brother. Currently still nursing my youngest (2). At one point I was so overwhelmed I tried to switch to formula but the ingredients were so horrible I just stood in the aisle and started crying. I knew I couldn’t give him that as I make plenty of breast milk. I even donated my milk to a friend who was struggling. The ability to feed our children from our body is such a beautiful blessing.
Someone I’m close to tells a great story about extended nursing in the 1970’s. Baby nurses occasionally till toddlerhood and milk is plentiful. Next pregnancy comes and toddler is old enough to say “mommy milk don’t taste good” (anymore) . Yes the milk flavor changes during PG and sometimes kids choose to wean themselves (my first didn’t, and I tandem nursed a 23m old and newborn for another 1.5 years, it was wonderful)
@@liorap5636 you’re absolutely right. My first was old enough to tell me that my milk tasted “yucky”. I was happy he weaned and I avoided tandem feeding as my second had extreme colic for the first couple months until I figured out his sensitivities through my breast milk. I don’t think I could have handled tandem feeding during that time. It is a beautiful thing though.
Most food in stores are garbage INCLUDING baby formula 💯
Wow, this one seems more controversial than the COVID videos! Vinay is brave to tackle it. As a pediatrician I would add that my breastfed babies almost never develop ear infections or constipation, which are issues that can be very vexing for families. Breastfeeding is the ideal but I don't shame moms when it doesn't work out, for any number of reasons. We should encourage it but also be thankful there are lots of formula options
Breastmilk is the standard. Anything else is inherently not as biologically normal, no matter the reason. That's pretty much common sense. Next best solution would be donor milk from another mother or mammal, like a goat or cow. Now we know more about the difference between human milk and those animals, so it's not that difficult to make a formula.
But asking, which is better, formula or breastmilk, is just as ridiculous as asking, which is better, a home cooked meal with whole ingredients or a bottle of Ensure? It's exactly the same question.
You should really look into what's in most formula. We probably could make a good formula with the chemical knowledge we have, but it probably wouldn't be cheap. I.e. most formulas are largely made of vegetable oils, which are bad for adults too.
I agree. This man talks like a man who is getting kickbacks from some formula companies to push their garbage. I wonder if he himself was breastfed?
Yeahhhhh don’t check the ingredients list on formula 🪦
@@DylanYoung I'm well aware of what's in most formula, which is why I compared it to Ensure. It's basically exactly the same.
You cannot give an infant milk from a cow or goat. This information could kill a baby. The protein in cow milk is not something an infant's new digestive system can break down. I love your train of thought outside of that one sentence! I breastfed my babies and formula would have been a life-or-death decision for myself!
The fact that even "premium organic" starter formula is full of ultra processed seed oil is absolutely disgusting.
As mom who exclusively nursed 3 children and a retired la Leche League Leader you might consider me a pro BF zealot. But it is the LLL training in how to evaluate medical studies that helps me see some of your points. The eternal educational question of is IQ a matter of nurture versus nature is a big factor in this argument. ( My 26 years in public education would also question the validity of most IQ tests too) so i would agree you can't solely based higher IQ on BF.
However I do take issue with a couple of your points.
In the early stages of establishing a milk supply giving that bottle of formula or water will actually decrease milk production. Back in the day when the WHO actually promoted healthy policies, their Baby friendly Hospital measures did include stats on number nursing moms as valid measure of a hospital's success. The shame should be on hospitals with low rates of nursing moms because they have failed to support and educate those moms. The biological fact is most women can successfully nurse their babies. Many choose actions that disrupt nursing and then claim they "couldn't BF." Why not just honestly say I chose to not nurse just like the other nutritional choices we make. Read the Politics of Breastfeeding for a deeper dive into these issues.
Not to mention the current metrics are a mom saying she intended to breastfeed and still actively breastfeeding 2-3 days later. Unfortunately many say they want to when they don't and so it looks like even baby friendly places with plenty of support don't help mamas.
Breastfeeding is best.
No debate.
As a former Neonatal nurse, I believe breast feeding is the optimal choice. I say that because this is what nature provides for babies. I think nature knows best. That said, I realize it is often the case that mothers cannot breast feed, my personal situation in point is that my baby was adopted. I did not give birth to her so I was not lactating, thus it was impossible. And there are many other reasons somewhat less definitive as my own situation. Therefore I am not at all critical of bottle feeding but I do have one reservation about it. It isn't the bottle, it is the formula. Just look at the ingredients in the most popular infant formulas and what you will find is terrible nutrition. It is like liquid candy. Sometimes I wonder if this might be the reason for the increase in obesity we are now witnessing. I believe that there are better formula choices, such as organic ones, but have not looked into the subject extensively but only out of curiosity many years ago.
I say this ,I have never heard of a breast milk recall.
Sort of, but also, there are many things conscientious mothers avoid when breastfeeding to avoid passing them in milk
@@ChrisCapoccia Agreed! Not only what mom consumes, but things she lacks will cause problems...MOST vegan moms are malnourished and their breast milk won't provide essential nutrients to their developing babies ☹
Plenty of meth contaminated batches, they just don’t get recalled 😂😂
@trogdortheburninator8149 actually that would be a lot easier to find and prosecute than formula issues if the infants levels increased by enough. I'm not sure if high moms are conscientious enough to be looking out for feeding cues tho
@@katdeekelly3228 true…. In full transparent I was really just making a cheap joke, not a huge amount of thought was paid to the question at hand…..
I’m surprised that you didn’t discuss the reduction in breast cancer risk from breastfeeding!!!
Modest nutritional differences? We are talking about stem cells in breast milk vs soybean oil in formula, just to state one example. I don’t find the differences to be modest at all.
Love Vinay, but I have to agree it's not a *modest* difference. It can be pretty dramatic. And obviously nutrition affects a range of health outcomes, in the short-term, and likely to varying degrees in the medium and long term (even if we don't have RCTs to demonstrate what those effects are exactly)
So glad you said it. That part made me cringe. It's a live dynamic food. Your breast absorbs saliva and adjusts water/fat/antibody levels based on baby. They aren't the same. Both acceptable. Not equal.
@@katdeekelly3228baby formula isnt acceptable. its toxic garbage to grow damaged children.
Is there a debate. Breast is best but it doesn’t always work and we can be supportive of those who have to use formula. I breastfed my boys, my daughter had special needs that kept her from latching. Life happens and you adjust. But that doesn’t change the fact that breastfeeding is a wonderful experience and healthiest for baby.
I think that with more support breast would work better. Kore water. Getting a woman in a dark room with her baby alone can work wonders.
I think that with continued attempts over time and lots of patients babies can learn to latch. I think it is a stressful process though.
Aorry to hear about your experience and glad that you were able to feed your baby.
Yours is the best response. Breast milk is the best for the baby and for mom. If, for whatever reason, this is not possible, then the formula should come into play. But breast milk is far superior to formula. It is fresh, made to order, and a perfect combination in real time, at right temperature and breast milk in the first 4 months of life is for the microbiome first and then the baby. We now know that microbiome is so essential for nervous, mind, immune, and so many other systems. Yet this spineless doctor (much like his "nuanced" take on covid and the vaccines) has the gall to equate the two. At this time, having listened to his "arm-chair" research based conclusions with no practical or lived experience, I have to conclude that he is not just ignorant but maybe so brainwashed that willing or not, he is a mainstream shill...he should go and live in rural India (or with any other indigenous people), refrain from preaching his false dogma, and simply and humbly observe how people live their lives - in commune with nature....maybe he will realize how wrong he is on so many levels...maybe he should stop these videos. When so many "lay people" are dismantling his "arm chair" analysis, and rightly so in the comments, it's time to retire, buddy.
Breastfed three kids here for 2.5 years each. I agree with almost everything you said; without RCTs we can’t make large conclusions about long term benefits. The one thing you said which is flat out wrong is it’s fine to give formula while you’re waiting for the milk to come in. The nonstop nursing of a newborn, even when it’s just minimal colostrum, is really what stimulates the milk to come in quickly. Supplementation may be necessary if a baby becomes extremely dehydrated but in many cases it will backfire and obscure a woman’s breastfeeding goals.
True. The sucking sends a signal to the breast to produce more. Newborns stomachs are only the size of a marble, probably why we mostly produce highly concentrated colostrum in the beginning.
Yes. You're 100% correct. Nipple stimulation increases prolactin levels bringing in milk and optimizing milk supply. Not to mention, it's likely bottle feeding confuses baby. Yes, the studies are mostly observational, but there's a LOT of anecdotal evidence as well. Ask any LC (I am an RN, IBCLC) they'll suggest alternative supplementation methods when possible.
Why do you need an RCT for physiologic norm? The RCT is thousands of years of human existence. Formula has existed for the last 5 minutes. You need evidence for formula, not breastmilk.
@@quarteralien before making claims such as breastfed babies have a higher IQ when there are like 40 other variables involved in IQ, you can’t rely on thousands of years of breastfeeding to know how formula compares. Trust me I am all about breastfeeding- again I did it for like more than a decade straight and I wouldn’t even know how to use formula if I had to - but I’m also not willing to sacrifice a scientific viewpoint for a dogmatic virtue.
@@spaghellemaybe just try common sense then.
Breastfeeding has sustained all of humanity for tens of thousands of years. It's obvious that anything synthetic cannot compare to something natural.
Heres a valid point, do ANIMALS use formula to breast feed?
I find it interesting that this is never debated in veterinarian science. It's widely accepted that breast milk is best. That said, formula is a very handy thing to have on hand as many things don't go as planned.
and shall we compare the diet and lifestyle of humans to most animals?
@@doesnotFempute Far as diet, humans and other animals are impacted in a similar way by inadequate diets. Ironically, a lot of pets struggle with obesity these days because most pet food is highly processed crap. Far as lifestyle, just like people, some animals don't want to breastfeed or are unable to. Formula is very helpful in those situations. And some people live in harsh conditions like wild animals do. Breastfeeding has been shown to strongly increase the odds of survival of infants in struggling countries - just like we see in animals.
YES... I have never had a cow or goat come to me saying she doesn't have milk.
@@lillian9221you've never had a cow say anything to you.
@@Madonnalitta1 actually they do, I'm lucky to have my own Boran herd.
I just don’t understand how this is even a debate.
It’s the seed oils blocking peoples minds
It’s not
Two of my grandsons are from an unbroken line of breastfed babies. The third was bottle-fed just because that's what his mom's heritage was, dating from the Post-War era of manufactured everything. My mom said other mothers shuddered to see her breastfeeding in the early to mid 1960s. They told her it was "animalistic." Nobody ever had a breastfeeding coach back then, and when I had my babies in the 1980s, I was stumped by the coaches. They have their rulebooks of proper method, and it was counterintuitive to what I was doing. So I played along while they were there, then did it the right way after they left. In the 2000s when my daughter had her babies, she insisted on doing what the coaches told her. Then she gave up and just fed her baby. He's still alive 😂 I honestly don't give a rat's tail about what the studies say. You wanna go off on all these millions of years of evolution, and then debate formula feeding. Humans survived on human milk since the beginning, so there's no need to talk about why it's better. It's certainly not worse. And why on earth would either method of feeding affect how women feel about having more babies? It sounds sinister to even want to focus on that in a study. Even if nothing is found, it could still be used as the reason to act to discourage childbirth.
If you look at the list of ingredients in formula (or at least the container I saw) I don’t think an intelligent person would even have the debate. However, obviously some woman can’t, and a mix of both is still breastfeeding…
I mean... Read the back of most formula bottles... Corn syrup and other fillers... This isn't even a debate to people outside of the research world.
Read the labels of the food you eat, no diff!
@@chrisfree2000 that's why I stopped eating most of that food. Basically eat beef, fruits and ferments now. Huge difference in how I feel.
Psychiatrist here. I really appreciate this video. The benefits of breastfeeding are real (i.e. some increase in immunity, particularly to GI illnesses), but fall far short of what has been claimed. And those gains need to be weighed against things like the mental health of the mother. A depressed mother is a big deal with respect to fostering a healthy attachment and I have seen well meaning professionals lose the plot around what it is that babies really need. Attachment disorders are not the result of being bottle fed. Or of going to daycare. Or of mom leaving baby to get her hair done.
Exactly
I appreciate this. Everything in life, but especially everything in parenting, is about the sum of the parts. There's no one perfect formula for parenting. There's a wide range of combinations that are more likely to produce a healthy, happy and productive adult.
I breastfed 5 babies for over 2 years each. I couldn’t breastfeed my 6th because I had/have metastatic breast cancer.
Breastfeeding is great! But bottle feeding is NBD, and making moms stressed about it isn’t good. Providing help for moms who want to breastfeed is wonderful, but support needs to be given without pressure.
Attachment disorders start early in human development, even maybe in the womb. The same psychiatrists who recommended leaving a baby to cry itself to sleep are the same people giving us mental health advice. No thanks. Your profession has done way too much damage. Look into Dr. Gabor Mate if you want to see what a real doctor is.
@@Elemenohpea440I think more care is taken to make moms feel comfortable formula feeding and it's actually assumed that something will go wrong with breastfeeding.
At least that's what I have seen and experienced.
I think moms need to toughen up and do the best for their babies letting go of others opinions of it because those people's opinions are not going to feed said child either way.
This is one of my first lessons of motherhood.
❤
To think that what is man made is better than nature made is absurd! Mother’s first milk, the colostrum, is super charged nutrition. Breast milk is best and most women can breast feed if given support and have a desire to do so. I agree with the comments made by others regarding the importance of the mother-baby bond, breast feedings effects on helping the mother’s body recover from delivery and I have heard that breast cancer rates are lower in women who have breast fed. It’s a win-win situation. Giving a bottle to a baby who is breast fed (especially early on), is the beginning of the end of breast feeding as the baby more satiated from formula eats less frequently and nurses less frequently, thus milk supply diminishes. Our society needs to support and encourage breast feeding, not find work arounds to it! JMO
My son was a preemie and in the NICU for 2 weeks. I never produced enough breast milk so by the time he was 1 month old he was 100% formula fed. He is now 26, has always been extremely healthy and is working on his Ph.D. in science.
We did the best we could under the circumstances and he turned out just fine.
My mum 60 y ago, was donating her milk to preemies... It has become so ok to donate blood to save a life but milk is frowned upon.
Even that one month helped. 😊
It’s bizarre to me the this could even be a debate. Particularly with colostrum, a major component of its benefits are the antibodies passed from mother to child. As the infant ages, the benefits of breast milk decreases. There are of course some women who cannot feed to the necessary levels for their children; obviously adding the calories of formula is helpful/necessary there.
All things equal, give the most amount of natural milk possible. If it’s insufficient, supplement with another source of food. The preferred source is and should be the mother’s milk, followed by human milk, and other substitutes after that. It’s crazy that this is even a debate topic. The nearer the diet can be to a natural and unadulterated diet the healthier the person will be. Does anyone think that expensive, handmade french cheese is nutritionally equivalent to craft singles? Of course not. But if you’re starving eating processed cheese is better than malnutrition.
The problem is how zealot some people are on this topic. A lot of mother are shamed for not breastfeeding. The response on this video show how passionate some can be.
@@matu4251no one should be shamed for being unable to breastfeed, but we should absolutely not be telling people that formula is better than breastmilk. It never will be, but I that is your only option, of course you'll take it.
@@Madonnalitta1 Who is telling people than formula is better than breast milk? I've yet to see that claim made. I think it's common sense that breast milk is what nature intended and is always going to be the best choice. But again, some people get overzealous on this topic. I've experienced it first hand when we had kids. All you have to is go through this comment section.
Hhhmmmm, something that's naturally created or something that's artificially created. Hhhmmmm, I wonder which one is better? /end sarcasm It's not rocket science folks. . .
What about the studies that showed breastfeeding helps with better jaw and mouth development?
And rates of obesity having to suckle vs funnel fed predetermined qtys. And gut microbiome. And attachment.
What about the benefits to the mother? Or the benefits to the environment? Or the security of not depending on the supply chain? A large percentage of formula users are dependent on WIC. What about the benefits of not being dependent on congress to pass a budget and fund your program?
As a LLL leader who did training with WIC peer counselors, I found WIC was more zealous in their anti formula attitudes. But you can't let babies starve if moms choose not to nurse.
Yes!!!
You don't breastfeed to increase IQ years down the road - you do it to encourage bonding and because it's natural.
Also - why pay for something that the chicoms buy out every time they visit a western country?
By all means, if you can't produce milk or need extra feeding by formula to increase weight - of course it's fine. No one should be shamed for it.
But the modern way of popping out a baby and going back to work after a week is NOT GOOD for the mother or the child.
If your finances can't handle a couple months or maybe at least half a year of maternity leave - maybe look at spending less on useless crap.
Bingo.
You’re probably better using formula as a stand in not a replacement. There are substantially more enzymes and coenzyme that are not in formula. We simply don’t have a handle on how important or unimportant they are at this point. Early exposure to refined sugar, CS or HFCS and seed oils as apposed to the fats and sugars a babies body is evolved for might not be an ‘optimal’ starting point.
Dr. VP. I agree as a LDRP/ Maternal-Infant nurse of 30 years. Mothers should have support in their choices. Most women choose to breastfeed due to documented benefits and bonding. Sometimes for medical reasons, they are encouraged to bottlefeed. just want to add, for those women who choose or medically encouraged to do both, it is very important to encourage these women that they need to pump every 3 hours , 15 minutes bilateral breast, and not to go more than 5 hours at night without pumping to keep a steady supply of breast milk. many women state they stop breastfeeding because they do not produce enough milk ( rare), but most of the time, the breasts are not stimulated regularly, therefore the milk supply is not enough. Also, inconsistency can lead to engorgement, mastitis, abscess.
you have to ask who paid for the study , I have learnt over the last few years most things are about money
Forcing insurance to pay for things always makes healthcare cost more.
You cannot mathematically prove that inserting a middle man into a service will decrease prices.
It's the fact that almost all insurance companies are publicly traded corporations (PTCs). PTCs operate 100% on greed.
Not-for-profit insurance organizations work better as long as they don't adopt PTCs' goals.
Their goals are to give their employees as little in paycheck and benefits as possible, to ship as many jobs as possible to other countries where people can be paid less and pollution laws can be ignored, and to give customers as little as possible while making customers pay as much as possible.
Then, the PTCs, can give their CEOs and shareholders huge amounts of money.
Wow I did not think there was even a question that natural is better. Are any of the formulas still 40% or more sugar?
Formulas and breast milk are all high in sugars. These sugar feed protective intestinal flora in infants. In adults to a lesser degree as well. In adults, the natural sugars found specifically in cooked dark green leafy vegetables feed protective gut flora, preventing "bad" ones from causing harm. The high sugar essentially keeps the baby alive until their gut matures, I suppose would be fair to say.
I haven’t looked since 27 years ago, until yesterday. was mortified at the ingredients.
in 1996 .. we had trouble initially having success with the breast so tried whatever was recommended. bleh. our baby immediately didn’t smell like ours, so we stopped. rethinking everything. my wife decided to hide away in a quiet spot + bond. eventually they both got the hang of it. thankfully.
any amount of UPF is harming cognitive development. age zero to 120 ... the damage to the human liver is significant.
bottle feeding (from expressing your own milk) seemed stressful doing it with an analog device, but we ended up renting a motorized one, then returned it when weened. don’t recall the price of it, but .. that streamlined our lives. for sure.
Totally agree. It’s sick what the medical industry has done to pervert the minds of people into even needing to question this.
Don't forget the carcinogenic veggie oils.
@@DylanYoung show the studies. But you will not be able to. You have heard someone on TH-cam tell you how terrible they are. Are they good? Maybe not, especially if you aren't eating a good diet AND eating heat processed seed oils...but carcinogenic? You're pushing something somebody else is making money on.
My father always said breast feeding is far superior for three reasons. It doesn't have to be refrigerated, the cat can't get at it, and it comes in cute containers!
😅
😂😂😂 so true.
really going after important topics!
The us in one of the few countries to break the who code to NOT TO market and give samples to new and expecting mothers.
Their aggressive advertising lowers breastfeeding rates, because is a breastfeeding mother is not a customer!
Also in history, doctors used to tell mothers their breastmilk was inferior and that breastfeeding was for the “poor and uneducated”
Fun hearing you speak on other topics. Thanks man
Thank you ,Vinay.
Of course breastfeeding is better. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. You’re not a failed mother. I breastfed three babies. From my observation, the first 2 weeks are the hardest. If a mom can get through the first two weeks, it becomes easy, but that first week can be brutal.
A word about pumps: In the beginning, they are not a perfect substitute for the body if trying to establish milk supply.
One more note: Breastfed babies don’t always take to bottles ESPECIALLY if the mother is nearby. If a baby must switch to a bottle, there is often an excruciating couple of days, so unless it’s absolutely necessary, it’s often not worth it.
Okay…one more note: You missed something. If you give a baby formula in the first week, you risk messing up the supply and demand system ESPECIALLY with the first baby. It shouldn’t be encouraged. It should only be if the baby is in danger of dehydration or if the mom is desperate for rest.
Thanks for the content, Vinay! 👍
Please speak on baby’s immunity and breast milk. I found la leche league which were very informative and supportive of breastfeeding and bottle.
LLL helped me out a lot. I ❤️ them. To this day, my children have never had an ear infection because of nursing them.
@@Sldejo i exclusively breast fed my daughter for the first 5 months and then had to supplement when I couldn't keep my milk up. She is almost 5 and has never had an ear infection. I think his point isn't that breast feeding isn't naturally a better way - just that the science doesn't show huge statistical differences in outcomes.
Love your commentary on this and your analyses of medical topics in general. Love that’s it’s outside of your specialty and love that that will make some people mad 😂. Having done a combo of both and experienced all of the recommendations and drama around this subject, this topic is great food for thought!
When I breast fed my baby was not gaining sufficient weight and the doctor told me to supplement with formula. I pumped to try to increase production but eventually I weaned and went fully to formula and was so happy to do so. At that time I lived in CA and my friend who also had a newborn was breastfeeding even though she had an infection from doing so… this was an extreme and she suffered physically and emotionally. Not worth it! Everyone needs to calm down and let moms do what is best for themselves and their own babies.
I never thought you would tackle this topic but it’s good. Your analogy was perfect
It’s a dimmer switch not a light switch… by my second child I knew I would breast feed initially along with using formula and weaned her after 2 months was so smooth and stress free and both my kids are just fine.
What about the health of the mother and losing the pregnancy weight from breast feeding. ?
Or reduced cancer rates?!
There's a lot that's left out here. Far more than IQ and protection against infections. There is the entire process of breastfeeding. It includes maxilofacial development, eye contact and focus development, listening a mother speaking to you and hearing language far more. You didn't parse out breast milk (in a bottle) vs breastfeeding at all. You didn't parse out giving a bottle while holding and paying attention to a baby vs propping a bottle in some way. You didn't address the physical benefits that mom receives, including stronger bones, protection against breast cancer, lower rates of ppd, etc. The mother-baby dyad is so incredibly complex and we probably don't know nearly as much about it as there is to know. You can't take something that is meant to be two connected persons and reduce it to mechanical bits. I don't think a mother should be "shamed" for making a choice, but I do think she should be honestly given ALL the information, without regard to her feelings. Anything less is paternalistic and dishonest. You are correct, probably, that the IQ difference is a difference in families, so maybe THAT should be talked about in society, BEFORE people are having children. Maybe we need to start telling the truth that not all family structures and situations have equal outcomes, they just can't. Maybe we need to start encouraging more functional family situations, on a societal level.
oh FFS yeah, Vinay didn't address every last infinitesimal molecule that constitutes the dynamic of feeding babies. I guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
When can we look forward to watching your video on the topic?
@@doesnotFempute so it's your position that no one is allowed to criticize unless they are willing to do it themselves?
Breast is best... i fed my baby for 19months and that shows by their good health today... 100%
No arm pricks or nose pokes ... and that means a healthy immune system too. ✊🏼
I’m proud that I breastfed my two kids til they were nearly 18 months each! Helped me lose weight postpartum too, bonus!
Yes!!
One of ours nursed until 3 years old, though eating other foods also.
And no arm pricks or otherwise
Does it concern you that vegetable or similar oil is used as one of the main ingredients?
Excellence balanced video. Thank you!!
I went to a breastfeeding class when I was pregnant with my daughter. Not only did the nurse tell the class that breastfed children grow up to be smarter but they also grow up to be prettier too. I instantly disliked this woman. Well my mom bottle fed me and I guess she failed me as I could have been prettier and smarter.
I tried breastfeeding my daughter and threw in the towel after two weeks. She’s 11 now, tall and beautiful and smart as a whip. No denying that breast milk is best and has many benefits, but no need to get sanctimonious and preachy over other moms that are doing their best.
And this is why I don’t have mom friends.
I have a daughter. Her father and I were both bottle fed. We both ended up having a lot of environmental allergies. I will be interested to see how my breast fed daughter will do.
Oh vinay, this kinda hurts me …haha, but I’m willing to set feelings aside. If the argument is breastfeeding or human milk feeding via bottle vs formula fed infants who is more intelligent that would be a difficult thing to prove because you’re correct in this country too many confounding variables. Are you referring to the meta regression analysis by Horta et. Al, 2015? But if we are arguing breastmilk vs formula. I’m sorry breastmilk is better! I could write a dissertation (maybe I will one day 😂…too many student loans from my undergrad and partial masters so it’s a no for now) however, there is no money in lactation research so no one does it (formula companies make billions of dollars every year) but what we do know is that breast milk decreases risk of SIDS, NEC (especially preterm babies this is why we have started doing breast milk donor banks and using for primarily babies in NICU), decreases in otitis media, breastfed babies take in less volume than babies fed with bottles, not to mention decreases in risk of breast and ovarian cancer for mom, better bone density for mom, it’s free ! (Sort of ) look at what happened during our recent formula shortage due to potential contamination then shut down of factories for months and no formula to be found. So many elements in breast milk that aren’t even in formula (probably more we don’t even know about) look at the differences even between colostrum vs mature milk there’s no “colostrum formula”. At the end of the day you’re right I will support a mom who wants to bottle or breast feed or even exclusively pump breastmilk because it’s her who is doing it for 1+ years at all hours of day and night and not me however let’s not ignore the evidence we do have. I also applaud you for the comment it’s not all or nothing you can breastfeed 4 times a day if you choose or for 3 days. Any breastmilk is better than none. WHO and AAP recommend breastfeeding exclusively for 6 months and until age 2 in addition to other foods. I will stop my commenting here but I also love that you’ve chosen this topic ! I’ve dedicated most of my career to caring for mothers and infants and we could do so much more for them especially in this country ❤ my credentials include IBCLC and BSN. Love your content and platform to discuss and argue in a friendly and evidenced backed kind of way vinay !
Ok I’ve thought it over ….to set the record straight vinay please seek out the expertise of dr Katrina Mitchell or dr Anne eglash! They are the ones we need in this debate! You’re welcome ….
My first was born in the Middle East in the early 90s. I breastfed, no bottle. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to make 3 round trips between there and the US in her 1st year starting at 10 weeks. The first time I landed in the US, the customs agent (older man) was thoroughly-I mean, mind blown-confused why/how I had a baby strapped to me yet carried no “baby food”. 😂😂😂
Seriously, I’m grateful I had the resources to do this for both my children. There are so many factors around the issue, we’re all just trying to do our best ❤
That's hilarious! 😂
Seed oils.
I would like to hear more about why those are "different" women, the ones who breast feed and the ones who don't. That is an important point...
As one of those different moms I would say intelligent moms put alot of research into their parenting choices and the data on many fronts point to BF as best. These moms will also be doing many other things that aid brain development so it is hard to say which gave the great increase in IQ. These are human babies so you can't ethically do a Harlow's monkeys type of study on this.
Thanks Doc.
Formula is a poor choice! I do agree that sometimes it would be beneficial to have the baby trying other mom’s milk . Dr Susanne Humphreys has a nice lecture about it.
When I was pregnant with my second child I went to a breast feeding class. I really wanted it to be successful because I could not breast feed my first child. I sat there and heard all this stuff about how formula babies are more likely to die of heard disease and cancer and all this crap. When it came time to introduce myself, I got upset explaining now I feel like my 3 year old is going to die from a heart attack because I was unable to breast feed him. She immediately started to back pedal her claims.
Such heartbreaking nonsense. I'm so sorry someone suggested you were less bc of real struggles. Did you love your baby? Was your baby fed? Bc that's what matters. ❤
I think formulas have improved a lot over the years too. What may have been true of formulas from the past, may not be true now.
Anything that improves health though, like lack of susceptibility to infection, should lead to increases in IQ. Or, should prevent decreases in IQ from ill health. "Big" of course is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Waist to hip ratio predicts IQ of both mother and offspring. And studies show that more seafood = smarter kids. Breast milk is the delivery mechanism for omega 3s that are found in the gluteo-femoral depot. . . hence, women with more tubular ratios should get the bigger benefit breast feeding, especially if they supplement with omega 3.
"Modest nutritional differences?" SMH
I think while breastfeeding should be encoreged because of bonding and it being a free food source for the baby, but we need to recognize that being abusive to mothers who aren't successful for whatever reason is completely out of line
As an OB/gyn - fed is best. Support the mom in her decision. If she says bottle - don’t make her sign something called “the risk of formula feeding” to get a bottle of formula at the hosp. At 3 am, sometimes bottle is best. I was much more gung ho on the BFing until I had my kids. The tears I shed over feeding difficulties didn’t have to be. That being said, I nursed the first for 15 months and I loved it. I quit pumping at 11 months and that was a great day - it was the Monday after Thanksgiving - and I remember that vividly 7 years later. The second had a lip tie, couldn’t extract milk well, caused tremendous trauma and I was working much harder and constantly stressing over pumping. And I still cried when he weaned at 9 months.
Support women and keep the admins out.
The BIG problem with formula feeding is that its ILLEGAL to make formula in the US without adding seed oils, with everything weve found out about seed oils and health, it should be a no brainer unless you can source formula from Europe
I'm not disagreeing with anything you have said but I do have a question. You note that modest differences in nutrition likely don't affect IQ. Might the psycho/emotional benefits of breastfeeding have a more likely effect on cognition? Of course, there'd have to be evidence that breastfeeding has positive psycho/emotional effects. Also, on the hospitals using metrics about breastfeeding to market, I'd argue that many do not support breastfeeding enough and many women would like the opportunity to make the decision of whether they want to breastfeed on their own, so having a hospital that makes it easy to breastfeed gives us this choice and that is of value to most women. Would love to hear your thoughts on the way we do birth in this country, ie, Pitocin, epidurals, and c-sections.
Thanks
God wouldn’t have created a built in nutritional immune boosting milking station if HE didn’t think it was GREAT
!
the end
100%
Amen!
Haha, true
No God has ever been proven to exist
@@crazyprayingmantis5596 prove it!
I wasn't thrilled with the idea of breastfeeding with my first but I started with it with my first. He was half on, half hour off and back on a half hour after that!!😖 Round the clock!
At his dr. appointment I was nearly ARRESTED!! For starving him , he had lost so much weight! I was hysterical, telling the doc about him eating so often 8-10 wet diapers a day and how I was told as long as he was doing that, all was good!
I was told to start him on formula IMMEDIATELY! ONLY FORMULA, And I had to return him Daily to be weighed!!!😮
I was less interested in it 6 years later with #2 but felt extremely pressured. Same thing, needing fed every half hour, after 48 hours, I said "F it" someone make this child a bottle!😡"
What do you know!😊 baby slept 3 hours between feedings, we both rested better and I was a MUCH MORE pleasant to be around 😁
My daughter had my granddaughter 2 weeks ago and she choose formula and that's Great with me!❤
Yes, round the clock.
That's what being a mother requires, yes it can be damn stressful.
The frequent waking can be beneficial for little ones. But if mama isn't doing well then it needs to be tailored for the family. Doesn't mean breask milk isn't ideal tho.
Good video. Being an old fart, I was not only breast fed but grew up on raw cow milk, raw honey, free range chicken eggs, etc. . Of course I have no real clue how "intelligent" I am as I have no real idea of what the word "Intelligence' means. I might score 131 on a standardized IQ test, but that only means that I can think rationally, and solve puzzles and questions using that part of my analytical mind. With that said, Intuitive intelligence gets a bum rap these days . It also cannot be defined, but like the old saying goes, "I can't explain what it is, but I know it when I see it" . When I was younger our doctors not only had a solid foundation in analytical thought, and diagnoses but also did not discard their natural intuition or "gut feeling". Of course we are all "data driven" today, which, while not bad, can result in only looking at "data" and discarding our own intuitive intelligence. After all, most hypotheses begin from intuitive observations.
I think this is a super worthy topic for this sort of public facing explanation of how the research methodology works.
But I also think Nassim Taleb is right about where the null hypothesis on questions like this!
People claiming invent formula is purer should have to surpass some level of rigorous evidence!
A main advantage of breastfeeding is immunologic, and longer is better as antibodies and microsomes containing mRNA instructions to make specific antibodies are transmitted from mother to child. The longer that lasts the longer the protection extends into the toddler & pre-school period.
The rise of polio as a serious illness coincided with the invention of reliable baby-bottle nipples and a decline in breastfeeding (often by wet-nurses) and improved urban sewage systems which kept the virus from the potable water supply. First Polio Exposure got pushed past infancy into school ages, and as with many viral infections that just makes the illness worse.
This a topic I really care about. I happily breastfeed both my kiddos. ( I had to wean #1 bc my milk dried when i got pregnant w/#2) My best friend struggled with it for several months for her first two. When number 3 was on the way, she called me in tears bc of the pressure to breastfeed. I told her you've got two other kiddos to take care of, make sure #3 is fed either way.
Wet nurses were a thing for a reason! Each woman should do what works best for her. Try breastfeeding, if it doesn't work for all the many reasons it might not, okay be thankful for other options.
Thank you for being a sane voice in this discussion
Breast is in fact best. But, there are tons of women that simply underproduce (probably due to birth control and other hormonal disruptions). My wife in fact was very upset about being unable to produce milk. It’s hard. And unfortunate.
Many milk supply issues are based on rigid scheduling of feedings as well.
And I always thought breastfeeding was a sensible way to improve immune function. That would be a good study.
Formula is processed by its nature. In normal adult life it would be tiring to eat processed food all day.
However the youngsters do seem to survive and thrive on formula.
That said any so called objective study of breast v. formula could be conflicted by ideology and commercial interests.
It would be a luxury for many mothers to be able to take extended time off from the workforce in order to breast feed.
Good stuff as usual! Maybe on your next covid update you can explain why the death rate was higher in the vaccine arm as compared to placebo.
Thank you for your insight, Dr. Prasad!
My OB and her nurses really seemed to encourage Omega-3’s during my last pregnancy, something I didn’t hear from my other doctors in prior pregnancies. And then the pediatrician also pushed for higher DHA/EPA intake because I was breastfeeding my baby. It seems like they’re both excited about DHA/EPA, plus being Asian, I don’t want to fit in that stereotype of being deficient in Vitamin A 😆
Anyways, after doing both bottle-feeding and breastfeeding, breastfeeding has made life so much more efficient.
The nutrition in formula needs to be completely overhauled or offer other, more natural alternative options than HFCS powder.
So true. If people actually read the ingredients list, they’d change their minds about formula. Soy oil is terrible. Safflower oil is also bad. I have no gripe with coconut oil, but I don’t think it’s ideal for an infant. Add to that all the vitamins are not chelated. So many in there are useless chemicals. Animal milks are superior to formula in every way.
I don’t know why I’m watching a video about breastfeeding, but I think you hit a very important nail on the head. People who spread dubious information based on spurious studies, even if they’re generally correct in their conclusions, still hurt their stance as a whole. Even if you’re 100% right, you can easily drive people away from your point of view if you aren’t careful what you choose to justify yourself with. I think a lot of people come to very smart conclusions, and then stop filtering information so long as it corroborates said conclusion.
I appreciate your balanced approach to what can be a very charged topic.
I nursed my two sons and it was a great experience. However I have plenty of friends who couldn’t nurse for various reasons.
Your post has been very sensible. I did both: our firstborn would ONLY breastfeed, and our second utterly refused the breast and insisted on the bottle.
my wife couldn’t BFeed because of a reduction surgery. but still tried. got a little at first but formula is ok as long as good quality and try to get that first bit of BFEEDing
all formula in the US is the same due to the strict standards
Can you please look into adenotonsillectomy?
Vinay spot on as usual. Breastfeeding is very good but nobody should be shamed or browbeaten if they can't do it. Formula is also not a life altering detriment. I know women who didn't produce much milk - they were shamed and browneaten, ordered to take large doses of domperidone
What's browneaten?
@@crazyprayingmantis5596I think he means brow beaten, but brownbeaten is doing terrible things in my imagination!
@@Madonnalitta1
🤣
I breastfed 3, but because i went back to work with the first, he had three months... He is 30y old now and i notice small differences, the younger ones were beter without hard work in school. He battles to control his weight but his brother is born a model. I am sorry that i didn't treat him the same than the later two... My career was more important..
What about the babies' choice? I had triplets born at 35 weeks. One was a born breastfeeder and would spit out the teat of a bottle. At 7 months of age, he had enough and went on to solids. The other two struggled to latch on, and although I managed to breastfeed for the first four weeks, they preferred the bottle. None of them had any illness in the first 6 months of life. Now aged 34, the breastfed one is without doubt the cleverest. But I attribute it to genetics
My mum just didnt want to breast feed me so i was formula fed. I kind of resent her choice, she says i always had a snotty nose as a baby and toddler, i never did well in school and i have asthma and autoimmune disease now...i think if i was breastfed i would of been healthier. I breastfed my chileren til around 2 years old and they rarely get sick and have no health issues, i personally feel better that i was able to breastfeed my children and we are very close
One point that wasn't addressed, and a point which likely has no data. Trying to mix breast milk and formula, the infant may prefer one over the other and refuse one of them, or at least make feeding time more difficult than it needs to be.
Such great points. I am a NICU RN and we encourage BF and breast milk. However, fed is best. So many guilt felt new moms. Feel so sorry for them. Also with preemies we wind up fortifying with formula for extra calories. And most preemies wind up supplementing with a few ounces of 30 calorie formula. Interested in your thoughts on donor breast milk v. formula- we have our own milk bank at our hospital. Also, you should look into the push for so called baby friendly hospitals. no pacifiers and no bottles allowed. parents have to practically beg for them.
I love the idea of mothers donating surplus milk, it's such a beautiful thing to share. I wonder, as a professional in this area, have you ever heard of, or considered using camel or goat milk instead of formula? I heard that these are most compatible with human milk. When my grandmother wasn't able to breastfeed my father because they were both unwell, she fed him goat milk and he quickly recovered and thrived, so I do have a somewhat sentimental view of that milk.
I don’t really know much about that. 😊
I never used a pacifier for my children. It was my belief my baby was using their voice to tell me they needed something from me. I wanted to hear from my baby; not insert a pacifier to "shut them up." Pacifiers also delay speech development and mouth development. Others are entitled to their own beliefs, but I wanted to share mine.
Glad to hear some hospitals are following those no rubber nipple guide lines. There are very valid reasons because they teach the baby to suck incorrectly so they don't get enough milk from mom who then produces less and gets sore nipples in the process. Those free pacifiers and formula samples given at hospitals are donated by formula companies to create a market for their products by disrupting the establishment of moms milk supply. Best to not use for the first few weeks.
I'm curious how long you've been a NICU nurse? I became a NICU nurse 20 years ago. I literally watched our NEC rates plummet when we stopped introducing cows milk formula to infants less than 34 weeks and give donor milk instead. Cows milk protein is much harder on their fragile GI systems. This is pretty well known in the NICU world. And where the hell do you work that you still fortify to 30 cal? We started adding protein rather than calories about a decade ago and almost never fortify beyond 24 calories. I'm honestly thinking your NICU may need to revisit its practices.
I think it's a bit nature, a bit nurture. Callous unloving mother's don't want to breast feed. Which leaks into how they treat their whole upbringing.
But breastmilk is literally designed to be nutritional to babies. It's raw, unprocessed. It has no chemicals foreign to babies.
I think it's the equivalent to eating highly processed food versus a whole food diet.
Not having studies that show differences is the same as not having studies showing that processed foods have a ton of overlap with lower IQ. Whether it's a cause or a symptom is debatable
Very moderate sensible points. There is enough pressure on women on everything around mothering. No point in adding to it with appeal to authority grounded only in bad evidence and not first starting from sensitivity and compassion about why different people are doing different things
I breastfed all 3 kids, and it was partly because babies just really like it, and for me it felt less complex than dealing with formula.
It's hard to have good data when running an RCT and having women not breastfeed would be unethical.
This still a debate? That’s like debating if sun is hot or not