Breastfed Children Get Better Grades In High School

According to a new study published in The Journal of Human Capital, breastfed babies are more likely to do well in high school and to attend college than infants who were primarily bottle fed.

The authors of the research, Professors Joseph Sabia from the American University, a professor of public policy focusing on health economics, and Daniel Rees, an economics professor from the University of Colorado Denver, studied 126 children from 59 families. They compared siblings who were breastfed as babies to others who were not, taking into account some other factors (i.e. maternal intelligence and the quality of the home environment), which are very difficult to measure.

The study found that breastfeeding was associated with an increase in high school grade point averages and an increase in the probability of college attendance. Says Sabia, "The results of our study suggest that the cognitive and health benefits of breastfeeding may lead to important long-run educational benefits for children. But this is just a start. Much work remains to be done to establish a definitive causal link." He also points out that the study was the first to use sibling data in order to examine the effect of breastfeeding on high school completion and college attendance.

Rees states that "by focusing on differences between siblings, we can rule out the possibility that family-level factors such as socioeconomic status are driving the relationship between having been breastfed and educational attainment."