This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Longer breast-feeding duration increased cognition in children
Children who are breast-fed longer have better receptive language at age 3 years and better verbal and nonverbal intelligence at age 7 years, according to recent study findings.
“While observational studies have reported positive associations of breast-feeding with later intelligence, breast-feeding is strongly related to determinants of child intelligence, such as maternal intelligence, and developmental stimulation received by the child; residual confounding by such shared determinants may have led observational studies to overestimate the effect of breast-feeding on child intelligence,” according to background information in the study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
The study included 1,312 mothers and 1,224 children aged 3 years and 1,037 children aged 7 years who were involved in Project Viva, a prospective longitudinal cohort study. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III) was used to test receptive language correlated with intelligence tests, and the Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities (WRAVMA) was used to test for visual spatial and visual motor abilities.
Researchers found that for 3-year-olds, mean duration of breast-feeding was 6.4 months and 2.4 months for exclusive breast-feeding. When adjusting for child age and sex, breast-feeding longer was associated with higher PPVT-III score at age 3 years (0.58; 95% CI, 0.40-0.76 points per month breast-fed). When adjusted to include maternal IQ, the association decreased to 0.21 (95% CI, 0.03-0.38) points per month breast-fed.
Participants who were never breast-fed scored about 3 points lower on the PPVT-III scale at age 3 years compared with those fed breast milk only. PPVT-III score was about 2 points lower for weaned participants and those receiving mixed feedings (P=.01). At age 7 years, longer breast-feeding duration was associated with higher scores on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (0.35; 95% CI, 0.16-0.53 verbal points per month breast-fed, and 0.29; 95% CI, 0.05-0.54 nonverbal points per month breast-fed).
WRAVMA scores at age 3 years were also greater for participants whose mothers consumed two or more servings of fish per week (0.24; 95% CI, 0.00-0.47 points per month breast-fed) compared with those whose mothers ate less than two servings (–0.01; 95% CI, –0.22 to 0.20).
“In summary, our results support a causal relationship of breast-feeding in infancy with receptive language at age 3 years and with verbal and nonverbal IQ at school age,” researchers wrote. “These findings support national and international recommendations to promote exclusive breast-feeding through age 6 months and continuation of breast-feeding through at least age 1 year.”
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by NIH.
