Breastfeeding Boasts Higher IQ's In Children

In a week full of exciting and positive breastfeeding news, we have yet another study to add...The May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry reports that longer periods of exclusive breastfeeding during a child's first year of life has been associated with an increase in intelligence by first grade. The Belarussian study of 17,046 children found that those who were born in hospitals that promoted exclusive breastfeeding scored higher on verbal IQ tests than those who were born in hospitals that did not take part in the promotion. In addition, they received higher reading and writing ratings from their teachers.

Dr. Laura Viehmann, a member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics' section on breastfeeding, describes the findings as "really quite robust." She goes on to say that the strengths of the study were the large numbers of participants and the long follow-up, adding that "it's going to be hard to repeat a study of that size."