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06/23/2005: "Breastfeeding Cuts Risk of Myopia?"

Wow, the news services are buzzing with the new research that breastfeeding "may" reduce a child's risk of developing nearsightedness later on. Well, I certainly believe that breastfeeding is the best start a mother can give her child in life, but I'm a little skeptical about this one. I'd hate to see millions of mothers out there be disappointed when after all their breastfeeding efforts, they still have to buy glasses for their children once they reach school age.

Here is the significant quote from the above linked article:

While 62 percent of the breast-fed children had myopia, or nearsightedness,
69 percent of those not breast-fed did. "It's really a modest effect," Stone said.

There are a lot of researchers out there who want to give us more and more reasons why breastfeeding is better for babies than formula feeding, and it's true. It is better. But we know a lot of other health reasons to breastfeed our babies besides this one. This one seems pretty slim, and possibly got more air time than it deserved. We should be honest with ourselves about this one.

More than half of our perfect breastfed little angels are going to grow up to be near-sighted anyway, just like their formula fed friends.

But ours will be angels. ;-)

All the Breast,

Suzanne.