Breastfeeding linked to child's intelligence later in life
Aug-01-2013

Mothers faced with the decision of whether or not to breastfeed now have new evidence to consider: skipping formula in favor of breast milk could affect a child's intelligence later in life.

In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, lead author Dr. Mandy Belfort, of the Boston Children's Hospital, sought to examine the link between the breastfeeding and a child's cognitive function as they develop.

Belfort and her colleagues gathered data from 1,312 mothers and children in the United States, tracking everything from the mother's frequency of breastfeeding to other factors including the mother's intelligence, the mother and father's education levels, measures of the home environment, the mother's employment and the type of childcare the baby received.

While the link between breastfeeding and cognition had been previously explored, many earlier studies did not control for these additional factors.

"Many previous studies have been criticized because any link you might observe between breastfeeding and childhood intelligence could be explained by those other factors," Belfort told FoxNews.com.

Belfort then performed a series of tests measuring the children's cognitive development after infancy. At age 3, the children underwent the higher Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, a measure of receptive language, or how well a child understands language.

"A child's receptive language is highly correlated with general intelligence as measured by more typical IQ tests," Belfort said.

After analyzing the data, researchers discovered that for each additional month that a child was breastfed, through a year, their language score was .2 points higher - a statistically significant finding.

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