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Children's Social and Emotional Benefits
2. Breastfeeding during the first week appears to be associated with more synchrony between you and your child, and also seems to promote positive experiences.
In Else-Quest et al. (2003)'s study, breastfeeding was also associated with less parental negative affect (meaning negative emotions or experiences), less parental intrusiveness, and less infant dysregulation at 12 months postpartum. However, because Else-Quest et al. (2003) also found no associated differences in maternal or infant positive affect, researchers hypothesized breastfeeding to serve as a potential buffer against negative emotional experiences, instead of a promoter of positive ones (Else-Quest et al., 2003).
3. Breastfeeding's potential role as a promoter of positive experiences felt by your child is further supported by breastfeeding also affecting your child's neural processing of emotional information.
Krol et al. (2015) found infants who exclusively breastfed for five or more months to show an increased neural sensitivity to happy expressions, whereas infants who exclusively breastfed for less than five months showed an increased neural sensitivity to fearful expressions.
1. On the one hand, breastfeeding has been found to increase the bond you feel with your infant, at least for the first few months of life.
In a recent study by Else-Quest et al., (2003) mothers who breastfed during the first week of life reported marginally significant higher levels of attachments to their infants than mothers who bottle-fed at their four month follow up. At their 12 month follow up, however, the difference of reported attachment between mothers who breastfeed during the first week and mothers who bottle-fed was no longer significant.
We want to make clear that mother's who bottle fed their children were not at any risk for having bonded poorly with their child. Transitioning to motherhood and bonding with your newborn infant is an incredibly emotional and highly individual process. Nevertheless, breastfeeding in the early postpartum period seems to facilitate the bonding process in some manner.
4. Despite these findings, there are many open questions about the lasting effects of breastfeeding on your child's social and emotional development.
Belfort et al. (2016), for instancefound no association between breastfeeding, and executive, behavioral, or social-emotional functioning in middle childhood.
Although some benefits have been shown in both bonding and emotional processing in infancy, researchers still question the overall role of breastfeeding in social and emotional improvement later on in life. Thus, more research is needed to better understand its complexities.
There are mixed results when it comes to examining the relatsionship between breastfeeding and your child's social and emotional development.
Such an increased sensitivity to positive emotional signals might serve important bonding functions in human development by fostering positive social interactions.
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