Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion breastfeeding and IQ

just curious...

how long did you breast-fed -if you did- your DC?

I do not want to turn this into a debate about the benefits of bf - just want to know what others have done.

I am still bfing, both DS and DD. With DD I am ready to wean, but I doubt I will manage until she wants it.

DS8 was breast-fed for 16 months.

BTW, you might want to ask, additionally, if we as parents were breast-fed, since there is another parallel post asking for correlations between parents IQ and kids IQ? I know in the 60's and early 70's parents were told by doctors how wonderful formula was. (God knows what was in it back then!). Both my husband and I were bottle-fed, and we seemed to be just fine and none-the-worse for it.

I never breast-fed our DS5 but my DW did for just under 2 years.

LOL!

DS nursed for over 2 years and DD for over 3 years.

But neither my brother or I ever were nursed at all and were most likely HG+.

What I do think nursing helped my kids with was security. Being a very shy, insecure kid, I always felt like part of that was just my brother and I had to really push hard to get attention from our parents. I really wanted my kids to feel like they had (and continue to have) as much attention as they need in whatever age appropriate form seemed right. I really let them take the lead on weaning.

Sorry couldn't help myself.

As far as I know I was not breast-fed. In regards to DW I think she was.

In regards to being gifted, for me it depends on who you ask, anywhere from slow to HG+.

I am pretty sure DW is MG.

Okay. I'll weigh in but only because Edwin made me laugh.

I was told by my uncle that my mother breast-fed me when I asked him. My mother is deceased so I couldn't ask her.
Since he is a medical professional and seems to think formula=chemical and bad, taking into consideration my family is totally into revisionist history I have not idea if that is accurate.

I did not BF first daughter, she was unable to nurse. She did get breast milk for as long as the pump was effective, about 2-3 months.
I did BF second daughter to about 7 or 8 months.

My mom breast-fed me for 3-6 mos, I think. Back then, that was unusual.

I BF DS7 for 14 mos., at which point he weaned himself--one day he just grinned, clamped his lips together and shook his head "no." I tried again that evening, with the same result. I never BF him again. EASY! Since I was ready to quit, too, it was GREAT!

DS4 BF for about the same time. Maybe 13mos.? Because by that time--after two kids!--I was tired of feeling like Bessie the cow! I gave a lot of milk, and both my kids were in the 95+ %ile for weight, so they nursed hard. I regularly pumped 2 12-oz. bottles of milk when I pumped! That's a ton of milk! And DS4 had acid reflux, so he yaked up full tummies of milk on a daily basis, literally drenching multiple bath towels, then nursed again. People would see me lay out towels as burp cloths and laugh...until they saw him let loose. Even with the towels, I usually had to change clothes. It was nuts! And before I'd finished drying off, he'd be ready to nurse again.

Moo! :p

So I made sure to go the recommended 12 months with him, but DS4 and I were really *both* ready to be done by that point.

Weaning was also no big deal with DS4, though not quite so easy as with DS7. (What could be?)

From shaky memory

DS13 - about 1 yr
DS12 - about 15 months
DS9 - about 18 months
DS6 - about 3 yrs (and I hated the last year & desperately wanted to quit! Had to go away for the weekend & left him with in-laws to scream for 48 hrs).

My 2 sisters & I all were breastfed.

I don't know if I was breastfed and my mother would not remember if I asked her.

I breastfed my daughter for one year.

I breastfed my son for about three years.

DS5 was bf for 25-26 months. I don't really remember since DS4 was already a few months old at that time and it's all blurry. DS4 was bf for 3 years. They both self weaned.

I was breastfed but I am not sure for how long.

Kriston, wow! You could have fed a few other children. That's quite an amount to pump!