Breastfeeding Debate: New Study Says It Offers 'Little Benefit For Early Life Intelligence, Cognitive Growth '

There is a growing debate between breastfeeding and bottlefeeding. Most mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their children up to two years, but is there really an advantage in doing so? A recent study revealed that breastfeeding does little in improving a child's IQ despite claims that "breast is best" for IQ.

According to News.com.au, researchers conducted a study among 11,000 British children. They monitored children who were breastfed alongside a group who were bottle fed from 18 months old to 16 years old, Mail Onlline has learned.

The researchers were initially expecting to see differences in IQ between infants who were breastfed and their counterparts who were bottlefed at a very early age. They also anticipated that the difference in IQ would have no long term impact and that children would have an equal IQ as they aged.

However, the team who have been working for the said study for more than 19 years found out that both groups have the same average IQ of 100 throughout the process.

The study found out that there is no substantial association between breastfeeding and higher IQ at age two. In fact, the same study suggests that breastfeeding has nothing to do with improved IQ after the age of two, which shows that breastfeeding has no contribution on the development of young brains over time.

The study has also learned that breastfeeding was associated with a small IQ advantage to girls aged two, but by the time they reached 16, this advantage had disappeared, News.com.au has learned.

The scientists concluded that "Breastfeeding has little benefit for early life intelligence and cognitive growth from toddlerhood through adolescence."

Goldsmith's University of London study co-leader Dr Sophie von Stunn revealed that few of the earlier studies, which look on the possible relationship between IQ and breastfeeding, have used strong designs that enabled them to produce reliable results.

"Children—and adults—differ in their cognitive abilities, and it is important to identify factors that give rise to these differences. But comparatively small events like breastfeeding are very unlikely to be at the core of something as big and complex as children's differences in IQ," said Stunn.

Stunn stressed that children's IQ differences are explained by long-term factors such as children's family background and schooling. She said that among the breastfeeding's benefits is building a child's immune system. However, mothers who choose not to breastfeed or cannot breastfeed they should not feel bad about themselves because they are not harming their children.

"Being bottle fed as an infant won't cost your child a chance at a university degree later in life," she said.