Research has shown clearly (and this has been
> replicated many times) that *over the first year of life* an artificially
fed infant
> consumes much more than a breastfed baby.  So as not to make my post too
long,
> however, I limited it to the "newborn" period. During the first few weeks,
there
> doesn't seem to be much difference (at least that I know of).  However, by
the time
> a baby is 4 months old, the artificially fed baby is taking on average 25%
more each
> day than the breastfed baby.
>
> Butte, N. et al.  Human milk intake and growth in exclusively breast-fed
infants.  J
> Pediatr 1984; 104:187-95.
>
> Last I looked, no one knew exactly why this was so.

You know, I read this and I think it is HUGELY important, especially because
we don't know why or how this happens. Could it be linked to the high and
higher rates of obesity that everyone is so concerned about?

I wonder, too, if it is linked to stress. I have been looking at the
research into stress and infants recently. I saw one study that showed that
a newborn baby who is given a bath by a nurse will fuss and cry and show
high levels of cortisol. That same baby, bathed by his own mother, may still
cry and fuss - but the cortisol levels stay low. Skin to skin contact with
mother significantly reduces cortisol levels. There is a wealth of research
showing that chronic stress, producing high levels of cortisol, is strongly
linked to obesity and a multitude of related health problems.

Well, it seems to me that the breastfed baby has a built-in stress
safeguard - skin-to-skin contact several times a day. It is possible for a
bottle fed baby to get that same protection, or at least similar
protection - but in reality, it rarely happens. I've noticed that many of
the bottle feeding mothers who make the effort to hold the baby through
every feeding in the beginning stop once the baby can hold his own bottle.
But the breastfed baby keeps on getting all that lovely holding, touching
and stress relief.

Differences between bottle feeding and breastfeeding that we don't fully
understand, like this one, may ultimately turn out to be some of the most
significant.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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