According to a new study led by researchers at McGill University, breastfed babies ended up performing better in IQ tests by the age of six. What great news! The research has been published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry and the story has been picked up by CTV and the BBC.
We’ve suspected as much, and heard such remarks before, but now we have scientific research to back up the claims. Just another reason to breastfeed I should say! Although, as with all studies, there are other possible explanations that may contribute to the final outcome. When comparing the backgrounds of moms who chose to breastfeed vs. those who chose not to, there were some differences in affluence and “family circumstances that was really influencing intelligence.” I’ve heard this stated before that a mom’s education level influences her decision to breastfeed and can influence the child’s IQ out of family expectations and exposure to educational activities.
Researchers aren’t sure whether the breastmilk itself influences cognitive abilities, or whether it is the physical and emotional actions (love, attention, touch) associated with breastfeeding that influences a child’s IQ. But if breastfeeding can improve a child’s IQ even just a little bit when compared to formula, isn’t that worth the effort?
Both articles are below for your reading pleasure, just in case they go offline in the future.
Breastfeeding makes kids smarter, study says
Updated Mon. May. 5 2008 5:23 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Children who are breastfed score higher on IQ tests, as well as on teacher ratings of their academic performance, according to the findings of a new study.
By age six and a half, children who were breast-fed scored 7.5 points higher on verbal-intelligence tests, 2.9 points higher on non-verbal intelligence tests and 5.9 points higher on overall intelligence tests.
“Our results, based on the largest randomized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation, strongly suggest that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves cognitive development as measured by IQ and teachers’ academic ratings at age 6.5 years,” the authors conclude in their study.
The research was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
A team of international researchers, led by Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University, evaluated data from 14,000 children born at 31 Belarusian hospitals. Half of the babies’ mothers were encouraged to breastfeed exclusively for as long as possible. The other half had standard in-hospital maternity care and outpatient follow-up without the breastfeeding intervention.
After the children turned six, their pediatricians administered IQ tests and their teachers evaluated their academic accomplishments in reading, writing, math and other subjects.
The findings support previous observational studies that have found breast-fed babies to be smarter than their formula-fed counterparts.
“The consistency of our findings based on a randomized trial with those reported in previous observational studies should prove helpful in encouraging further public health efforts to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding,” the authors wrote.
However, the researchers noted that it is not yet clear if the breast milk itself influences the cognitive development of babies. They acknowledge that the physical and emotional actions associated with breastfeeding could have an impact on how the brain develops.
Abstract:Breastfeeding and Child Cognitive Development
New Evidence From a Large Randomized Trial
Michael S. Kramer, MD; Frances Aboud, PhD; Elena Mironova, MSc; Irina Vanilovich, MD, MSc; Robert W. Platt, PhD; Lidia Matush, MD, MSc; Sergei Igumnov, MD, PhD; Eric Fombonne, MD; Natalia Bogdanovich, MD, MSc; Thierry Ducruet, MSc; Jean-Paul Collet, MD, PhD; Beverley Chalmers, DSc, PhD; Ellen Hodnett, PhD; Sergei Davidovsky, MD, MSc; Oleg Skugarevsky, MD, PhD; Oleg Trofimovich, BSc; Ludmila Kozlova, BSc; Stanley Shapiro, PhD; for the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT) Study Group
Context: The evidence that breastfeeding improves cognitive development is based almost entirely on observational studies and is thus prone to confounding by subtle behavioural differences in the breastfeeding mother’s behaviour or her interaction with the infant.
Objective: To assess whether prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children’s cognitive ability at age 6.5 years.
Design: Cluster-randomized trial, with enrolment from June 17, 1996, to December 31, 1997, and follow-up from December 21, 2002, to April 27, 2005.
Setting: Thirty-one Belarusian maternity hospitals and their affiliated polyclinics.
Participants: A total of 17 046 healthy breastfeeding infants were enrolled, of whom 13 889 (81.5%) were followed up at age 6.5 years.
Intervention: Breastfeeding promotion intervention modeled on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
Main Outcome Measures: Subtest and IQ scores on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence, and teacher evaluations of academic performance in reading, writing, mathematics, and other subjects.
Results: The experimental intervention led to a large increase in exclusive breastfeeding at age 3 months (43.3% for the experimental group vs 6.4% for the control group; P_.001) and a significantly higher prevalence of any breastfeeding at all ages up to and including 12 months. The experimental group had higher means on all of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence measures, with cluster-adjusted mean differences (95% confidence intervals) of _7.5 (_0.8 to _14.3) for verbal IQ, _2.9 (−3.3 to_9.1) for performance IQ, and_5.9 (−1.0 to _12.8) for full-scale IQ. Teachers’ academic ratings were significantly higher in the experimental group for both reading and writing.
Conclusion: These results, based on the largest randomized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation, provide strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children’s cognitive development.
Breastfeeding ‘helps to boost IQ’
More evidence is being put forward that breastfed babies eventually become more intelligent than those who are fed with formula milk.
Canada’s McGill University found breastfed babies ended up performing better in IQ tests by the age of six.
But the researchers were unsure whether it was related to the breast milk itself or the bond from breastfeeding.
The study of nearly 14,000 children is the latest in a series of reports to have found such a positive link.
However, one problem has been that some of the research has struggled to identify whether the findings were related to the fact that mothers from more affluent backgrounds were more likely to breastfeed and it was factors related to the family circumstances that was really influencing intelligence.
But the latest study attempted to take this into account by following the progress of children born in hospitals in Belarus, some of which ran breastfeeding promotion schemes to boost rates across all groups.
They found that those who breastfed exclusively for the first three months - with many also continuing to 12 months - scored an average of 5.9 points higher on IQ tests in childhood.
Teachers also rated these children significantly higher academically than control children in both reading and writing, the Archives of General Psychiatry reported.
Lead researcher Professor Michael Kramer said: “Long-term, exclusive breastfeeding appears to improve children’s cognitive development.”
But he added: “Even though the treatment difference appears causal, it remains unclear whether the observed cognitive benefits of breastfeeding are due to some constituents of breast milk or are related to the physical and social interactions inherent in breastfeeding.”
Changes
Fatty acids found in breast milk are thought to boost intelligence, but the report said the physical and emotional aspect of breastfeeding may lead to permanent changes to brain development.
The researchers also suggested breastfeeding may increase verbal interaction between mother and child, which in turn could aid their development.
Nonetheless Professor Kramer said more efforts should be made to promote breastfeeding.
In England, the government recommends mothers breastfeed exclusively for the first six months.
But research shows while three quarters start off breastfeeding, just one in four are still doing it by six months.
Rosie Dodds, of the National Childbirth Trust, said: “This research certainly increases the evidence about the impact of breastfeeding. “
And I think what we now need is more effort put into supporting it.”
