Surprisingly little is still known about autism and breastfeeding. A few years ago, we reviewed all of the research evidence and found limited information about the experiences of autistic parents – beyond highlighting that the sensory differences when breastfeeding could be very challenging for them. We also found that communication by health professionals didn’t always meet the needs of autistic parents.
So, for our newly released study, we asked 152 autistic parents from across the UK about their breast- and formula-feeding experiences. Some 87% of those who breastfed were strongly motivated to keep breastfeeding even if they ran into difficulties, while only 54% of all the parents we interviewed used any infant formula. This is a substantially lower rate of formula use than we’d typically see in the UK, where 88% of babies receive some infant formula during their first six months.
