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Last Updated: May 6, 2008 - 10:00:19 PM |
TUESDAY May 6, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Recent research showed children who were breastfed exclusively for at least the first three months in infantry were smarter than those who were not.
The research published in the May 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry was actually a trial meaning that the results indicated breastfeeding was the cause for the higher intelligence scores in the breastfed children.
Previous studies have found children and adults who were breastfed as infants have higher scores on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive (learning, thinking and memory) development than those who were fed formula, the authors said in their article. But those studies are observational and a causal relationship has not been established.
For the trial, Michael S. Kramer, M.D., of McGill University and the Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues followed 7,781 infants who were breastfed and 6,781 infants who were not.
The children entered the trail between June 1996 and December 1997 in 31 maternity hospital and clinics in Belarus. When the children were at the age of average 6.5 years, both breastfed and formula-fed children were assessed for their intelligence capacity.
The mothers were not forced to breastfeed or formulate their infants. But those who visited a facility promoting breastfeeding were more likely to breastfeed their children at age 3 months than those who visited a non-promoting facility, 43.3 percent versus 6.4 percent.
The researchers found at 6.5, the children in the breastfeeding group scored an average of 7.5 points higher on tests measuring verbal intelligence, 2.9 points higher on tests measuring non-verbal intelligence and 5.9 points higher on tests measuring overall intelligence.
The reading and writing skills of those who were breastfed were also found significantly better thank control children.
"Even though the treatment difference appears causal, it remains unclear whether the observed cognitive benefits of breastfeeding are due to some constituent of breast milk or are related to the physical and social interactions inherent in breastfeeding," the authors write.
One possible reason for the intelligence difference is the essential long-chain fatty acids and a compound known as insulinlike growth factor I, both found in breastmilk, according to a statement released by the journal. Other possibilities may be physical, emotional connection and verbal interaction between mother and child.
"Although breastfeeding initiation rates have increased substantially during the last 30 years, much less progress has been achieved in increasing the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding," the authors concluded.
"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."
© 2004-2008 by foodconsumer.org unless otherwise specified
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