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Infant feeding: the effects of scheduled vs. on-demand feeding on mothers’ wellbeing and children’s cognitive development.
- Source :
- European Journal of Public Health; Feb2013, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p13-19, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- Background: Many popular childcare books recommend feeding babies to a schedule, but no large-scale study has ever examined the effects of schedule-feeding. Here, we examine the relationship between feeding infants to a schedule and two sets of outcomes: mothers’ wellbeing, and children’s longer-term cognitive and academic development. Methods: We used a sample of 10 419 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a cohort study of children born in the 1990s in Bristol, UK. Outcomes were compared by whether babies were fed to a schedule at 4 weeks. Maternal wellbeing indicators include measures of sleep sufficiency, maternal confidence and depression, collected when babies were between 8 weeks and 33 months. Children’s outcomes were measured by standardized tests at ages 5, 7, 11 and 14, and by IQ tests at age 8. Results: Mothers who fed to a schedule scored more favourably on all wellbeing measures except depression. However, schedule-fed babies went on to do less well academically than their demand-fed counterparts. After controlling for a wide range of confounders, schedule-fed babies performed around 17% of a standard deviation below demand-fed babies in standardized tests at all ages, and 4 points lower in IQ tests at age 8 years. Conclusions: Feeding infants to a schedule is associated with higher levels of maternal wellbeing, but with poorer cognitive and academic outcomes for children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Subjects :
- ACADEMIC achievement
BREASTFEEDING
CHILD development
COGNITION in children
COMPARATIVE studies
CONFIDENCE
MENTAL depression
INFANT nutrition
INTELLIGENCE tests
LONGITUDINAL method
EVALUATION of medical care
MULTIVARIATE analysis
RESEARCH funding
SLEEP deprivation
LOGISTIC regression analysis
SECONDARY analysis
WELL-being
EDINBURGH Postnatal Depression Scale
ATTITUDES of mothers
REPEATED measures design
STATISTICAL models
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 11011262
- Volume :
- 23
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- European Journal of Public Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 85215264
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks012