Tetchy breast-feeding babies "normal"
Wednesday January 11th, 2012
Breast-fed babies cry more - and may be more irritable than bottle-fed babies, researchers revealed last night.
British
experts said that mothers needed to be told this is a normal part of breast-feeding.
The findings come from a study of 316 three-month-old babies reported in the scientific journal PLoS One.
The research was conducted at the Medical Research Council's epidemiology unit in Cambridge, UK.
Paediatrician Dr Ken Ong said the irritability and crying was a "natural part of communication" between mother and baby.
The alternative - of a baby being soothed by a bottle - was similar to an adult using comfort eating, he said.
He said: "There is an overwhelming body of evidence supporting breastfeeding as the normal and most healthy form of infant nutrition and our findings do not contradict this. Bottle-fed babies may appear more content, but research suggests that these infants may be over-nourished and gain weight too quickly.
"Our findings are essentially similar to other stages of life; people often find that eating is comforting."
He added: "Rather than being put off breast-feeding, parents should have more realistic expectations of normal infant behaviour and should receive better understanding and support to cope with difficult infant behaviours if needed."
Dr Janine Stockdale, of the Royal College of Midwives, said the findings might be influenced by whether mothers gave their babies soothers (dummies).
She said: "As breastfeeding mothers are often advised not to use a soother while their baby is learning to breastfeed, this means there is a need to look at babies' behaviours, taking into consideration whether or not a soother was introduced.
"Factoring this type of information into the research would enable us to understand more about the suggested differences between the behaviours of breastfed and bottle fed babies."
Breastfeeding and infant temperament at age three months. de Lauzon-Guillain et al. PLoS One January 11 2011
Tags: Childbirth and Pregnancy | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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