Data Check: Impact of breastfeeding on children's achievement
Monday, March 21, 2011
Children who were breastfed achieve better results in reading, writing and mathematics tests at ages five, seven, 11 and 14 than those who were not, researchers have found.
The research "twinned" children who were breastfed with others who were not but who had similar characteristics such as sex, birth weight, mother's age and marital status, and parents' jobs and education.
According to the findings, even those children who had been breastfed for as little as four weeks were still doing better than their 14-year-old peers.
While breastfeeding is known to have health and development benefits, researchers said the impact on children's cognitive outcomes was previously unknown. Although the authors said the research is limited, they believe the findings present a case for further work in the area.
The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding exclusively for six months and alongside solid foods for two years. But breastfeeding rates are relatively low in the UK, with around one in three infants exclusively breastfeeding during the first four months.
The research was conducted by the University of Oxford and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.
