According to researchers, children who were
breastfed longer had higher scores on intelligence or IQ tests.
Using standardized tests, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital
in Massachusetts measured the IQ of some 1,300 children whose mothers
were enrolled in a long-term study that looked for ways to improve
maternal and child health.
Investigators tested the youngsters at age 3 to determine their
ability to understand language. Lead researcher Mandy Brown Belfort says
aptitude was an average of 2.5 percent higher among children who
received nothing but breast milk for the first year, compared to infants
who were given formula.
"And then at age 7, we looked at verbal and non-verbal IQ and there
the effect was a little bit stronger. So, for each additional month of
breastfeeding, the IQ score was about a third of a point higher," said
Belfort.
Belfort, a neonatologist at Boston Children's and professor of
pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, says breastfeeding was not
associated with higher scores on a test that measured memory and
learning.
However, researchers found that visual motor skills, or the ability
of the eyes to guide movements, were better among 3 year olds whose
mothers consumed two or more servings of fish per week.
At this point, Belfort says investigators can only speculate as to
the reasons why breastfed children had higher IQs.
"One is that there are either nutrients or other substances in breast
milk that benefit the developing brain but haven't been discovered yet,
and so aren't being added routinely to infant formula," she said.
Another possible explanation for the effect of breastfeeding duration
on IQ, according to Belfort, is there is something about the
interaction between mother and baby that boosts the child's
intelligence.
A study on the link between the length of breastfeeding and IQ in
children is published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
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