Norwegian Study Claims Formula Just as Beneficial as Breast Milk
A new Norwegian study
says that breast milk is no better for infants than formula.
A Norwegian professor has said that breastfed children are not healthier because they were fed naturally but because of the conditions in their mother's womb tended to be better.
Professor Sven Carlsen, who led the Norwegian team, said: "Baby formula is as good as breast milk."
He said the health of the child is determined by the hormone balance in the mother's womb.
When a woman has high levels of male hormones in the womb the flow of nutrients to the baby is affected and the hormones also affect her ability to breastfeed, making her offspring more likely to be bottle fed.
This suggest that babies who are not breastfed have typically also been subjected to poorer conditions in the womb and it is this that has affected their health not the lack of their mother's milk, he said.
The controversial theory was immediately dismissed by British experts who said the claims were 'irresponsible' and 'overblown'.
Prof Carlsen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said he reviewed data from more than 50 international studies looking at the relationship between breastfeeding and health.
He said the study found no evidence that breastfeeding reduced the risk of asthma and allergies in children, which has been attributed to breastfeeding.
The only benefit from breastfeeding supported by genuine evidence is a "small IQ advantage", he said.
British Professor Charlotte Wright, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health was not impressed by the study and isn't buying a word of it. She told The Telegraph: "This is irresponsible and overblown. This is a new and largely untested theory that does not seem to be supported by any good epidemiological evidence." The study was published in the January edition of the Norwegian journal Acta Obstestricia and Gynecologia Scandinavica.
