Breast-feeding raises children's IQs, study says

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Increased breast-feeding during the first months of life appears to raise a child's verbal IQ, according to a study of nearly 14,000 children that was released Monday.

The study in Archives of General Psychiatry found that 6-year-olds whose mothers were part of a program that encouraged them to breast-feed had a verbal IQ that was an average of 7.5 points higher than that of children in a control group.

The researchers said that their findings suggested that the longer an infant is exclusively fed breast milk, the greater the IQ improvement.

The results echo smaller previous studies that found children and adults who were breast-fed tended to have higher IQs than whose who were not.

Lead author Dr. Michael Kramer, a professor of pediatrics at McGill University in Montreal, said the IQ improvements were modest and might not be noticeable on an individual basis. But he added that the increase could have a significant effect on society as a whole.

"We're not talking about making a child who has trouble in school and is dropping out into a genius," he said. "But if we can increase IQ by 3 to 4 points in the whole population, we can have fewer children at the low end and more Einsteins at the high end."

The latest study tracked breast-fed infants born between June 1996 and December 1997 in Belarus. Half of the infants and mothers were assigned to an experimental program designed to promote breast-feeding, while the remaining infants and mothers received regular pediatric and follow-up medical care.

The breast-feeding program included increased counseling and instruction when women visited doctors or clinics.

At the end of three months, 72% of infants in the experimental group were still breast-feeding to some degree, compared with 60% in the group that did not receive breast-feeding support.

The researchers believe that what drove the results was the substantially higher number of infants who were exclusively breast-fed in the experimental group: 43% compared with 6% of infants in the control group.

All children in the study were interviewed and examined between 2002 and 2005, when they were an average of 6 1/2 years old. The children's academic performance also was evaluated by their teachers.

Besides the improvement in their verbal IQ scores, children in the experimental group scored an average of 4.9 points higher on tests that specifically measured vocabulary.

Compared with children in the control group, children in the experimental group had overall IQ scores 5.9 points higher than those of children in the control group and better academic assessments from their teachers, but the improvements were not deemed statistically significant.

Kramer said that more research was needed to determine whether the benefits were related to a component of breast milk or to the physical and social interaction between mother and child that is inherent in breast-feeding.

The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that infants receive only breast milk during the first six months of life. Children who are breast-fed are believed to have health advantages, including fewer gastrointestinal problems.

Last week, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that breast-feeding in the U.S. was at an all-time high, with 77% of new mothers saying they breast-fed their children compared with 60% in 1993-1994.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci...0,4266885.story

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Steven,

Stop the hate!

[Sheriff Uling 3]

Anytime a man is sucking on a nice pair of ta-tas, his IQ rises! Well something rises anyway...

[Marilyn. 340]

bull ####### ...lol

[Sheriff Uling 3]

What if the baby is gay? Since the argument is made that they are born that way, the boy would be disgusted and the girl would be elated. Not good...

Edited May 6, 2008 by Sheriff Uling

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What if the baby is gay? Since the argument is made that they are born that way, the boy would be disgusted and the girl would be elated. Not good...

Oh brother... Breast feeding isn't a sexual act...oye!

[Sheriff Uling 3]

What if the baby is gay? Since the argument is made that they are born that way, the boy would be disgusted and the girl would be elated. Not good...

Oh brother... Breast feeding isn't a sexual act...oye!

I'm a die hard Freud fanatic... Hehehehe...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What if the baby is gay? Since the argument is made that they are born that way, the boy would be disgusted and the girl would be elated. Not good...

Oh brother... Breast feeding isn't a sexual act...oye!

I'm a die hard Freud fanatic... Hehehehe...

LOL...Oedipus Rex?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

What if the baby is gay? Since the argument is made that they are born that way, the boy would be disgusted and the girl would be elated. Not good...

Just stop breast feeding before puberty and all is good.

[aidan80 9]

Food for the whole family!

[rebeccajo 14]

Steven, you read to much.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Steven, you read to much.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

i sure feel smarter after i've had a breast in my mouth

[almaty 19]

Steven, you read to much.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

i sure feel smarter after i've had a breast in my mouth

or at least more content

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[Niels Bohr 72]

Geezes. For an adult mind. We think so perverted.