Breastfeeding Can Have A Positive Impact On Children's Vocabulary And Reasoning Skills

Children who were breastfed as children had higher scores on tests of vocabulary and reasoning skills at the age of five than those who were not breastfed.

Breastfeeding seems to make the biggest difference between children who are born early and was, therefore, room for improvement in their brain development.

Although the practice is linked to a range of health benefits at an early age, such as reduced risk of infection, the researchers are not quite sure what about breast-feeding may increase the intellect. But they have some theories.

"There are essential fatty acids in breast milk, which are good for cell growth and brain development, in particular," said Amanda Sacker, one of the authors of a new body of research on social and economic research at the University of Essex. "There may be differences in hormones and growth factors, which are absent in formula. A third possibility is a purely social. Perhaps children who are breastfed are more pampered, and this will give an advantage to them. "

Although Sack and his colleagues were able to account for many factors such as maternal education, and how wealthy families was that the investigation can not prove that breastfeeding itself that caused the improvement in cognition in children. For example, researchers have no data on parental IQ, which may have affected both if mothers breastfed, and how their children are on the thinking and reasoning tests.But the results published in The Journal of Pediatrics, pointing to a cause and effect, Sack said.

The data consist of approximately 12,000 babies born in the UK between 2000 and 2002. When the babies were nine months and again at a later visit, parents were asked whether their child was breastfed until at least five years age.Then, the children were taken for testing their vocabulary and reasoning skills. Space Six or seven of every 10 babies who were breastfed for a period of time time.Whether born or premature babies, children tend to do better on tests when they are born breastfed.Those in time and for four or six months have been a few months ahead of their peers who are not breastfed on tests of vocabulary and reasoning related to pictures.

Those who had been breastfed for as little as two months were also a couple of months on the image and testing space compared to other started at the beginning of five years, and those who were breastfed for four months experienced a increase vocabulary.

"These differences are very small, when you think about it," Sacker told Reuters Health. "Children who start at a disadvantage, the gaps tend to be wider than the narrower with age."

Some, but not all, previous studies, looking for the connection of breastfeeding, and thinking skills, or IQ have reported similar results. Dr. David McCormick, a pediatrician at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said that breastfeeding can benefit from the immune system, development and brain function. "The benefits are many other advantages that only IQ," McCormick, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Although this study could not examine differences between children who are fed only breast milk and which received a mixture of breast milk and formula, "the evidence has always been the exclusive breastfeeding is the best," he said.