Saw this article on the Huffington Post today about a study that “proves” that breastfed babies are “more challenging” than bottlefed babies.
Really???
In any case, I couldn’t resist chiming in on the conversation.
Here is my brief response (which could easily have been a mini-dissertation with how much I wanted to share)
…..but I resisted. 🙂
As someone who has a background in market research, I immediately notice a flaw in the study. You are asking moms to fill out a qualitative survey about their perception of their baby. The variant in the responses is as random as the mom filling it out. What one mom perceives as “challenging” may not be challenging to another mother.
I will say that babies and moms who breastfeed usually have stronger bonding on the biochemical level due to the oxytocin that is released during nursing. One could say that the moms who are more bonded to their children due to nursing, feel more distressed when their baby is upset and might respond their baby is challenging in the survey. Less bonded moms might not feel as much distress.
Not to say that bottle feeding moms can’t bond with their children, but my point is that you can interpret the data in so many ways, and the important questions and underlying assumptions need to be addressed.
That is just one example of how qualitative research can be tricky. The same mom is not comparing several children….she is only looking at her one child and cannot compare to other children. I feel it makes the results more questionable than fact.
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