Posted by
InchDeep on Monday, May 05, 2008 4:37:20 PM
From the Australian.
Breastfed kids 'smarter'
MOTHERS who breastfeed their children can
expect them to grow up smarter than their formula-fed peers, say
Canadian researchers in a study of lactation, released today.
The
study published in this month's issue of Archives of General Psychiatry
found breastfeeding raises a child's IQ and improves his or her
academic performance.
"Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that prolonged
and exclusive breastfeeding makes kids smarter,'' said lead
investigator Michaelo Kramer, of McGill University in Montreal.
His team followed 13,889 infants born between June 1996 and December
1997 at 31 Belarussian maternity hospitals and clinics for
six-and-a-half years.
Half of the mothers were encouraged to breastfeed exclusively and for a prolonged period, while the other half were not.
The children's cognitive abilities were later assessed using IQ tests and based on their early grades at school.
On average, the breastfed group scored better in all tests, and "significantly higher'' in both reading and writing.
Mr Kramer said, however, it is still unclear if the cognitive
benefits of breastfeeding are due to the makeup of breast milk itself
or the social and physical interactions between mother and child
inherent in breastfeeding.
In the study, he suggests the higher frequency and duration of
breastfeeding compared to bottle-feeding results in increased verbal
interaction between mother and child, which "might also have a
stimulatory effect on cognitive development''.
Other studies, he also points out, have shown that a mother rat's
grooming and licking of its pups has long-term behavioural effects on
its offspring.