Hardcore breastfeeding advocates are not going to like reading this. Breast may not be best. That is, according to a new study. Could the crosshairs finally be taken off formula feeding?

In recent years, formula-feeding has been shun upon, with new moms being told that not breastfeeding could put their child at risk for a slew of health, behavioral and developmental problems.

A study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine looked at data from three separate groups of children. "8,237 children, 7,319 siblings and 1,773 sibling pairs where at least one child was breast-fed and at least one child was not"—and measured 11 different issues thought to be impacted by breast vs. bottle feeding. The issues included obesity, hyperactivity, parental attachment, reading comprehension and more.
When they looked at data across all families, breast-feeding had better outcomes than bottle-feeding in factors like BMI, hyperactivity, math skills, reading recognition, vocabulary word identification, digit recollection, scholastic competence and obesity.

However, when the researchers looked just at the siblings who were fed differently, the benefits were not statistically significant. The exception was that breast-fed children were at higher risk for asthma, though it was unclear if those reports were self-generated or actual diagnoses.
The study was able to highlight the nurture vs. nature aspect that often gets ignored in the breastfeeding debate.

Nevertheless, it will probably be unlikely that this research will have any impact on breastfeeding advocates.