Open AccessDoes breastfeeding at six months predict cognitive development?
Author(s) -
Wigg Neil R.,
Tong Shilu,
McMichael Anthony J.,
Baghurst Peter A.,
Vimpani Graham,
Roberts Russell
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1998.tb01179.x
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , bayley scales of infant development , cognitive development , medicine , cognition , pediatrics , intelligence quotient , breast feeding , cohort , wechsler adult intelligence scale , cohort study , child development , demography , cognitive skill , psychology , psychiatry , psychomotor learning , pathology , sociology
There is controversy over whether the method of feeding in infancy affects intellectual development. We investigated the relationship between breastfeeding status at 6 months of age and long‐term cognitive development in a cohort of 375 children born in Port Pirie, South Australia, between 1979 and 1982. Cognitive assessments were conducted at ages 2, 4, 7 and 11 to 13 years. After adjustment for sociodemographic, environmental and biomedical factors, a small, statistically non‐significant, beneficial effect of breastfeeding on cognitive functioning was observed. Compared with the bottle‐fed children, the breast‐fed children had a 3.4 (95% C1 ‐0.1 to 6.9), 1.3 (‐2.3 to 4.9), 1.2 (‐2.0 to 4.4) and 0.8 (‐1.9 to 3.5) point advantage on the Bayley Mental Developmental Index at age 2 years, the McCarthy General Cognitive Index at age 4 years and the Wechsler Full‐Scale IQ at ages 7 and 11 to 13 years, respectively. Our data suggest that any beneficial effect of breastfeeding on cognitive development is quite small in magnitude.