Scheduled versus demand feeding of infants: Maternal wellbeing and child cognitive outcomes Seminar

Infant feeding is a hot topic among new parents, with millions of books on the subject being sold every year. Some childcare "experts" claim that mothers are happiest and babies thrive best if fed to a schedule; others maintain that babies know best when they need to be fed, and mothers should respond to their cues. We use data from ALSPAC, a large longitudinal child development study, to investigate the effects of scheduled and demand feeding on two sets of outcomes: maternal wellbeing on the one hand, and children's cognitive outcomes on the other.