The benefits of breast milk for babies are countless and new studies continue to discover new benefits of breastfeeding for the health of children and their mothers. The latest advance has been made by the University of Rochester (URMC), in the State of New York (United States). After analyzing thousands of tests, they discovered that children who were breastfed had better cognitive development than those who did not benefit from breastfeeding.
Cognitive benefits, even with just a few months of breastfeeding
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) analyzed thousands of cognitive tests performed by nine- and ten-year-old children whose mothers reported being breastfed, and compared those results with the scores of children who they were not.
They found that breastfeeding has a positive impact on children’s cognitive development, even if they were only breastfed for a few months. Hence, Daniel Adán López, first author of the study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, emphasizes the importance of these results so that “policies help improve motivation to breastfeed.”
Dr. Hayley Martin, co-author of the study, explains recalls that “there is already research that shows the many benefits that breastfeeding has for both mother and child.”
“The findings of this study are important to families, especially before and shortly after birth, when making breastfeeding decisions. It can advance breastfeeding goals of one year or more. It also highlights the critical importance of continue to work to provide equity-focused access to breastfeeding support, prenatal education and practices to remove structural barriers to breastfeeding. “
Best results with breastfeeding longer than one year
Researchers reviewed the test results of more than 9,000 participants ages nine and ten in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. They found that not only were there differences between those who had been breastfed and those who had not, but that the longer a child was breastfed, the higher their score on cognitive tests.
This is stated by the lead author of the study:
“The scores for children who were breastfed up to seven or twelve months were slightly lower, and then those for children one to six months would go down a bit more. But all the scores were higher compared to the children who were not breastfed.” .
Without a doubt, one more reason to choose breastfeeding to feed our children (whenever possible) and the longer the better. The benefits of breast milk are innumerable and more appear every day.
Via | University of Rochester
Photos | iStock
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