Say Yes, Spring 2003: Why is Breastfeeding Good?
A child’s building blocks: amino acids in breast milk, the building blocks of proteins, are well balanced for the baby, as are the sugars and fats -- the foundation for a lifetime of good nutrition.
Illustration by Ray Mullan
© UNICEF Turkey 2003
It is certainly true that exclusive breasfeeding helps to build a stronger resistance to infection as the baby receives vital antibodies from it’s mother’s milk. There is little doubt that it also improves the cognitive development of infants, although there is a degree of uncertainty regarding which actual ingredient of breastmilk is responsible.
On the one hand, it has been suggested that certain lipids, or fatty acids, present in breastmilk but not in the vegetable oils used in formulas may be essential to brain development. Another suggestion is that the reported benefits may be the result of a stronger psychological attachment between mother and baby and that they are not solely related to the ingestion of breastmilk.
A cohort study by the University of Queensland and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, following 3,880 children from birth to five years of age not only confirms the link between breastfeeding and higher levels of cognitive development but also shows that levels of development are related to the duration of breastfeeding.
While the researchers make no claims that cognitive development is exclusively dependent on breastfeeding, they show that breastfed children have a clear score advantage over formula-fed infants in response to the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at five years and later, at eleven years, the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children.
However, they were also able to show that while a more nurturing, enriching environment and parenting style is important, it does not sufficiently explain the positive relationship between increased cognitive development and breastfeeding.
Researchers suggest that a follow-up study of the relationship between maternal IQ and a close investigation of the nurturing environment would qualify their findings more accurately, as would an investigation of the role of fatty acids and their derivatives.
They are confident that their findings support the need to encourage breastfeeding of infants where possible.
Read A Mother’s Story in this Spring 2003 issue of Say Yes. There is more about the Baby-friendly Hospitals Initiative (BFHI) in the February 2002 issue of Say Yes.
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SAY YES, SPRING 2003
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