A few days ago we brought you an article that showed how artificial milk increased the risk of kidney damage in very low birth weight infants. In order to continue offering information on what is ideal for babies born with more difficulties, we are talking about a recent study that shows that Premature non-breastfed babies may have a smaller brain and a lower IQ.
A brain a little smaller in the "term" age
The study has been published in The Journal of Pediatrics and has been carried out by an international team of researchers with babies born before 30 weeks of gestation or that weighed less than 1,250 grams at birth.
To do the study they took a sample of 180 babies and calculated the number of days they had received breast milk between the day of birth and day number 28. From there they made a cut to compare some children and others. Those who had taken breast milk more than 50% of the 28 days and those who had taken less than 50% of the days.
They saw, after adjusting the differences by age, sex, social risk and possible diseases at birth, that the babies in the group who had been breastfed less than half of the days, those who drank more artificial milk, had a smaller volume of gray matter upon reaching the age equivalent to a full-term baby (those that would be 40 weeks gestation of not being born prematurely).
A lower IQ at age 7
These same children, who were born between 2001 and 2003, were studied at age 7 in order to see if there were differences in its development. They saw that those who had received artificial milk more than 50% of the first 28 days of life had an IQ less than 0.5 points, worse results in mathematical tests (0.5 points of intellectual quotient), in working memory (0.5 IC points) and in motor function (0.1 CI).
At that age, at seven, brain size was the same when comparing one and other children.
When breast milk is a medicine
The intention of this entry is not to make anyone feel bad, or to blame for their chosen option. All options are respectable, but the information exists and should continue to be offered. so that each mother can make an informed decision: it is not the same to choose with all the cards on the table, than to choose when someone is telling you that it is exactly the same to give breast milk than to give artificial milk.
For premature babies, breast milk is considered a medicine, and that is why health professionals emphasize that mothers breastfeed them, or try not to receive breast milk from a donor if it is not possible. And it is that the baby's brain development is different, as we have seen, but also that of the other organs of the newborn that arrives early.
And perhaps you will tell me that 0.5 points of intellectual quotient is little. And it certainly is: it is a derisory difference at 7 years. However, it should be borne in mind that they only established the differences based on 28 days of feeding with breast milk or bottle (Perhaps the difference would be greater if they had counted months or years of breastfeeding), and that the comparison between groups was not "babies who drink breast milk" and "babies who drink artificial milk", but babies that took more than half days breast milk and babies who took a bottle more than half a day (many children in the breastfeeding group took a bottle and many in the bottle group took breast milk).
So, once again, and they don't even know how many, I want to put my finger in the sore of Health professionals that they do not care about breastfeeding, that they are not trained and that, consequently, they are not only not able to help women who want to breastfeed and have problems, but also give erroneous advice that eliminates any possibility of recovering breastfeeding Those pediatricians, doctors, nurses and midwives who with their advice make breastfeeding fail.
