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Children that are breastfed have a
higher IQ than children that are fed formula? Is this some sort of unsupported
statement by radical breastfeeding supporters? Has our support of breastfeeding
outstripped the facts? Nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps one of the most important stories
that hasn't made your local paper (but has been on the newsfeeds) is that there is a
demonstrated direct relation between a child's intelligence and cognitive ability and how
long that child was breastfed. Some studies show an increase in intelligence for each
additional month the child was breastfed.
Could you give your child a more important gift than a better brain? The findings
are hardly surprising when we consider that the brain is only 1/3 formed at birth, and
that breastmilk has been evolutionarily honed over millions of years to complete building
the brain during the first two years of life. Cow's milk has been evolutionarily
honed to.., hmm.., maybe build big bones? Whoever heard of a smart cow? |
"In long intervals I have expressed an opinion on public
issues whenever they appeared to be so bad and infortunate that silence would have made me feel
guilty of complicity."
- Albert Einstein |
Below are two articles summarizing the findings of the Christchurch School of Medicine in
New Zealand, which followed 1,000 children for 18 years to establish the relationship
between intelligence and breastfeeding. Below that are references on 7 other
separate studies that show a correlation between breastfeeding and cognitive development.
Breast-Fed Make Better Grades.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Breastfeeding during infancy of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Researchers from Christchurch School of Medicine in New
Zealand studied over 1,000 children born between April and August 1977. During the period
from birth to one year, they gathered information on how these children were fed.
The infants were then followed to age 18. Over the years, the researchers collected a
range of cognitive and academic information on the children, including IQ (intelligence
quotient), teacher ratings of school performance in reading and math, and results of
standardized tests of reading comprehension, mathematics, and scholastic ability.
The researchers also looked at the number of passing grades achieved in national School
Certificate examinations taken at the end of the third year of high school.
The results indicated that the longer children had been breast-fed, the higher they scored
on such tests.
Children who were breast-fed for eight months or more had, on average, significantly
higher test scores than children who were not breast-fed. "Similarly, children
breast-fed for eight or more months were only two-thirds as likely as non-breast-fed
children to have left school without qualifications," the researchers state.
The study authors note that mothers who elected to breastfeed tended to be older, better
educated, from upper-income backgrounds, in a two-parent family, not to smoke during
pregnancy, and had attained above-average income and living standards.
Still, after taking into account these and other possible "confounding" factors,
the results held.
The researchers say the findings "underwrite the need to encourage breastfeeding
and/or... (development of) improved infant formulas with properties more similar to those
of human breast milk."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for at least 12 months
"or longer as mutually desired by infant and mother."
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