Breastfed Children Deal With Stress and Anxiety Better

I love the fact that I can add to my list of breastfeeding benefits every day.

British researchers have recently discovered that children who are breastfed deal with stress and anxiety more effectively when they reach school age. The study found that, in a group of approximately 9,000 children between the ages of 5 and 10, children who weren't breastfed and whose parents were getting divorced or separated were 9.4 times more likely to show extreme anxiety when compared to children in the same situation who were breastfed as infants (they were only 2.2 times as likely to show extreme anxiety.)

In a recent issue of the Archives of Diseases in Childhood, the study's authors stated that, "Breastfeeding is associated with resilience against the psychosocial stress linked with parental divorce/separation." They believe that the physical contact between mother and child in the first few days of life may help to develop certain neural and hormonal pathways that affect a person's ability to deal with stress in later life. In addition, the authors also believe that the bond created during breastfeeding may affect the mother and child interaction, and that effect may endure.