Here is a new motivation for moms-to-be to opt for breastfeeding for their babies. In a study, babies who are breastfed tend to become smarter, better educated and richer when they grow up. The Brazil-based researchers revealed that breastfed babies score better on intelligence tests as well.
The study of more than 1,300 mothers and their babies in 1982 in Pelotas City, Brazil, who were breastfed for periods ranging from less than a month to more than a year, found that each month of breastfeeding can boost a 0.3-point increase in intelligence by age 3 and 0.5-point increase by age 7, U.S. News & World Report said.
"We should do whatever we can do to help women carry out their decision to breastfeed," said study author Dr. Mandy Belfort, a neonatologist at Boston Children's Hospital, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and lead author of the study published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
The significant differences were still recommending the findings even when the researchers have controlled for parental intelligence, income, employment and education.
The study was published on March 17 in The Lancet Global Health. However, many experts not associated with the study say that it is impossible to prove that breastfeeding may actually produce babies who would grow up smarter or more successful than those who were not breastfed.
According to Erik Mortensen, who's with the department of public health at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and author of an accompanying journal editorial, said that the study showing a link between breastfeeding and IQ is not proof of cause and effect.
However, he said that the association is quite very strong. "It may not be a causal effect, but in my judgment, the overall evidence from other studies and the Brazilian study suggests that the effects are causal," he said.
Breastfeeding has always been recommended by health experts as the best means for babies to get nutrients. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life should be given to babies for them to ward off diseases and have healthier bodies when they grow up.