WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22 2001

Breast is best for better brains

BY MARK HENDERSON, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

MOTHERS who breastfeed for less than three months may be holding back the intellectual development of their children, according to research published today.

Children who are breastfed for such a short period tend to have lower IQs than peers who receive their mothers’ milk for more than six months, a team of Scandinavian scientists concludes.

At 13 months, children who benefited from extended breastfeeding had developed superior mental skills and by the age of five that group had an average IQ eight points higher than their peers’, the study finds.

Significant differences remain even after the results are adjusted for maternal age, intelligence and education. However, the researchers acknowledge that influences such as genetics and the child’s environment remain much more important and less well understood factors in a child’s intelligence.

This is the first research to examine in detail whether the length of time for which a child is breastfed is important. Earlier work compared breastfed children with those fed on formula milk.

The researchers say the results indicate that all mothers should, if possible, breastfeed their children for between six months and one year.

Nutrients found in large quantities in human milk, including a neural growth factor that helps brain development, are probably behind the effect, they suggest. Long-term breastfeeding may also help babies to bond intimately with their mothers, further improving their mental progress.

The findings, which are published today in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, emerge from a study of 345 children in Norway and Denmark, where almost all mothers breastfeed their children for at least a few weeks after birth.

About two thirds of the children studied were breastfed for more than six months, with 17 per cent breastfed for less than three months.

Researchers then tested the children’s mental and physical skills at 13 months and conducted a full IQ test at five years. At both ages, the children breastfed for a shorter time were more likely to record below-average scores.

Torstein Vik, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who led the study, said: “Even once you adjust for factors like high maternal IQ, which makes (a mother) more likely to breastfeed, you still see an advantage.”

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