Breastmilk may boost IQ
2001-08-22 11:12
London - Breastfeeding babies for less than three
months may affect their intelligence, according to research
published on Wednesday.
Medical experts at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology tested the intellectual and motor skills of 345
children at 13 months and then five years of age.
Nearly two-thirds were breast-fed for six months or more but 17
percent were moved to bottle-feeding at less than three months
old. The team, led by Dr Torstein Vik, found no correlation
between breastfeeding and motor skills at either age.
But those who were not given breast milk after three months
were more likely to rate below average for mental skills at 13
months and for total intelligence by the age of five.
The findings, which support the "breast is best" advice
given by most doctors, were released in the Archives of Disease
in Childhood, a specialist publication of the British Medical
Journal.
"We found a positive association between duration of breast
feeding and mental development even after adjusting for
maternal age, maternal education, maternal intelligence and
smoking at the time of conception," the researchers' paper
concluded.
"Our data supports the hypothesis that a longer duration of
breastfeeding benefits cognitive development," it said. Many new mothers complain of being pressured to breastfeed
by healthcare professionals and wider society, even if they
feel unable to.
Mother's milk is full of special nutrients, hormones and
antibodies that are passed on to infants to help them to resist
infections, respiratory illness and diarrhoea.
Breastfeeding is especially recommended in developing
countries where the risk of death is higher for infants not
given mother's milk during their first three to four months.