A recent study shows that the longer an infant is breastfed, the better their cognitive abilities during childhood. Explanations.
No one can now deny the benefits of breastfeeding. The WHO and UNICEF even unite in recommending that from the hour following their birth, children should be fed exclusively to the breast for the first 6 months of life, and until the age of 2 years, or even more. “Breast milk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean and contains antibodies which protect them from many common childhood illnesses”, according to the World Health Organization.
But in addition to covering the health needs of the growing child, breast milk would improve his cognitive abilities. According to British researchers, we can even go so far as to say that the longer breastfeeding takes, the smarter the children would be. These hypotheses were formulated thanks to data from more than 7,800 newborns between 2000 and 2002 analyzed until they were 14 years old, by the team of Renee Pereyra-Elías, Maria Quigley and Claire Carson from the University of Oxford. .
From 6 months of breastfeeding, cognitive abilities increase
For this study, the verbal and spatial cognition scores of these 7,800 children were taken at ages 5, 7, 11 and 14. In addition, certain environmental factors were taken into account, such as the socio-economic level as well as the intelligence of their parents, based on a vocabulary test. After analyzing all this data, the researchers found that at the age of 5 years, children who had been breastfed for more than 12 months had better scores than those who had never been breastfed. They also revealed that at age 14, having been breastfed more than 6 months was enough to offer a better score than never-breastfed children.
Results confirmed by WHO who said:Children who have been breastfed get higher intelligence test scores and more rarely suffer from overweight, obesity or diabetes afterwards. In addition, women who breastfeed have a lower risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.”