Proven Benefits of Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding can boost your
child's intelligence
By analyzing 20 studies on breastfeeding, formula
feeding, and brain development, and quantifying the IQ benefit
from breastfeeding, researchers found that breastfed babies had
IQs approximately 5 points higher than their formula-fed peers.
The researchers estimate that maternal bonding associated with
breastfeeding accounts for about 40 percent of the increase, and
that the nutrition in the milk itself accounts for the other 60
percent (3.2 IQ points, according to the researchers). Babies
nursed up to six months saw the most increase, while children who
were breastfed for two weeks or less showed no IQ benefit.
Researchers from the Christchurch School of Medicine in New
Zealand studied more than 1,000 children for a period of 18 years
and found that babies who were breastfed for eight months or more
had higher IQs, better reading comprehension and math skills, and
overall increases in scholastic ability. The effects are
long-lived, the study says, lasting through childhood and
adolescence.
Breastfeeding protects your baby from diarrhea,
respiratory problems, and ear infections
Researchers from the National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the more breast milk
babies receive in their first six months of life, the less likely
they are to suffer ear infections and diarrhea.
Researchers from the World Health Organization found that babies
born to poor women in developing countries had better survival
rates from infectious disease. These mothers were forced to
breastfeed because they could not afford breast milk substitutes.
The protection from breast milk was strongest against diarrhea,
but was also significant for respiratory infections. The two
infectious diseases kill more than million children a year
worldwide.
Exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months can protect your
baby against future ear infections. In a study of 306 infants,
researchers in New York found that between six and 12 months,
babies who had been exclusively breastfed had an average of 25
percent fewer ear infections than formula-fed children.
When researchers implemented a breastfeeding promotion campaign
in a Navajo community in Shiprock, New Mexico, the number of moms
who nursed their babies exclusively for any period of time
increased from 16 percent to 55 percent. The number of babies who
developed pneumonia declined by 32 percent, and the number who
suffered from gastroenteritis decreased by 15 percent.
Babies who nurse for at least one year have fewer stomach
infections and less eczema in the first year of life than those
who are weaned sooner, say researchers from McGill University in
Montreal. They observed 17,046 full-term infants with healthy
mothers who planned to nurse. More than 30 hospitals in Eastern
Europe were involved in the experiment. At random, researchers
helped half the hospitals start breastfeeding support programs,
so new moms received instructions and counseling from doctors and
midwives. The rest of the hospitals cared for their patients as
usual and served as controls for the experiment. A year later,
nearly 20 percent of the mothers who'd received breastfeeding
support were still nursing their infants, compared to 11.4
percent of moms in the control group. Only 9 percent of the
breastfed infants in the first group had a stomach infection
during the year, compared with 13 percent of infants in the
control group. Also, only 3 percent of the breastfed infants in
the first group developed eczema (a scaly red rash caused by an
allergy), compared with 6 percent in the control group. —
Journal of the American Medical Association, January 24, 2001
Breastfeeding protects your baby from respiratory
illnesses such as asthma
Parents Talk
In a study of more than 2,000 children, researchers in Australia
found that exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first four
months after birth reduced a child's risk of developing asthma
-by age 6.
Breastfeeding may protect your child against obesity
In a study of 9,357 children between the ages of 5 and
6, researchers at Ludwig Maximillians University in Munich,
Germany, found that children who were breastfed exclusively as
babies (even for as little as three to five months) had a 35
percent lower chance of being obese than their formula-fed peers.
Breastfeeding protects preemies from infections and high
blood pressure later in life
Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center
and Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health studied the
medical records of 212 very low birth weight babies born
prematurely in 1992 and 1993. They discovered that only 29.3
percent of babies who received breast milk caught infections,
compared with 47.2 percent of formula-fed babies. Fewer than 20
percent of babies nourished by breast milk suffered serious blood
infections or meningitis, compared with 33 percent of formula-fed
preemies.
Formula-fed preemies may grow up to have higher blood pressure in
their teens than their breastfed peers. Researchers focused on
926 premature babies, feeding some of them breast milk, some
formula specially made for premature babies, and some regular
formula for the duration of their time in the hospital (an
average of 30 days). Then, the researchers measured the
children's blood pressure when they were between 13 and 16 years
old. Out of 216 teenagers who participated in the follow-up
study, those who'd been fed formula had higher blood pressure on
average than their breastfed peers.
Breastfeeding may protect your baby from leukemia
A study of more than 2,200 children found that those who
were breastfed as babies were 21 percent less likely to develop
two of the most common types of leukemia — acute
lymphoblastic and acute myeloid leukemia — than children who
were never breastfed. Moreover, the longer breastfeeding
continued, the more protection the child seemed to have against
the cancer.
Breastfeeding can reduce new
moms' stress levels
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
measured the blood pressure and oxytocin levels of 24 new mothers
and found that those with the most oxytocin in their system (50
percent of breastfeeding moms compared with 8 percent of
bottle-feeding moms) had lower blood pressure after being asked
to talk about a stressful personal problem.
Breastfeeding may cut your risk of breast cancer
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
found that breastfeeding cuts the risk of breast cancer by 20
percent in women aged 20 to 49 and by 30 percent in women aged 50
to 74, regardless of duration (one to three months, four to 12
months, or more than 13 months). They think that structural
changes in breast tissue caused by breastfeeding may protect
against cancer.
Breastfeeding for two or more years may reduce your risk of
developing breast cancer by 50 percent, according to a study of
women in China conducted by a Yale researcher. The researcher
found a 50 percent reduction in breast cancer risk among those
women who breastfed for more than 24 months per child, compared
with women who breastfed their children for less than 12 months.
Breastfeeding helps you lose weight
Researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of
Michigan studied 110 women, aged 20 to 40, all of whom gained
about 35 pounds during pregnancy. Monitoring the women's weight
at several intervals from birth to 18 months afterwards, the
researchers found that those who breastfed lost weight more
rapidly than their non-breastfeeding counterparts. After 18
months, though, the rate of weight loss was almost the same for
the two groups.