Do advocates exaggerate the benefits of breastfeeding?
Research has connected breastfeeding with an enormous list of benefits for child and mother. This page on the website of La Leche League International, an organization created to promote breastfeeding, includes many relevant links. Rosin examines some of the scientific literature and concludes that the benefits of breastfeeding are minimal or illusory. Sure, breastfeeding may prevent a bout with a stomach bug here and there, but too much of the research on other benefits is plagued by confounding variables. Are babies who were breastfed smarter, healthier, or less likely to be obese because they were breastfed? Or did they benefit from other features of their household or upbringing that happen to be correlated with a tendency of their mothers to breastfeed? I am sympathetic to this line of analysis. A statistician in my family has indoctrinated me to be wary of confounding variables. At the same time, I think there is more consensus than Rosin lets on about some issues, like the role
