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Even small amounts of caffeine in some at-risk individuals can precipitate or exaggerate anxiety. more...   |
 Does Breastfeeding Really Make Your Child Smarter? Tom Gilbert October 9, 2006 Contrary to popular bellief, breastfeeding has little or no effect on a child's intelligence, according to a new study. Although it is widely believed that breastfed babies are more intelligent, the scientific evidence is weak. Many of the studies that have found a link between breastfeeding and increased child intelligence have failed to consider other, fairly obvious factors, such as maternal intelligence. Recently, researchers from Scotland undertook the largest ever study - involving 5,475 children and their mothers in the USA - to re-examine the effect of breastfeeding. The findings showed that there is an association between breastfeeding and higher child intelligence. However, once other factors were considered - including maternal intelligence, home environment and socio-economic status - breastfeeding made at best a very tiny difference in children's intelligence scores. Published in the October, 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal, the research also compared the data on siblings within the sample group - one of whom had been breastfed and another who had not - and found there was no significant difference between the intelligence of the child who had been breastfed and the child who had not. What these studies really show is that, on average, more intelligent mothers tend to choose to breastfeed. Mothers who breastfeed are also more likely to be older, to have more education and to provide a more stimulating home environment. They are less likely to be in poverty or to smoke. The authors -- from the Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow, -- note their "surprise" at the fact that maternal intelligence has been overlooked as a factor in other research, "given the heritability of intelligence and the known association of maternal intelligence with both the initiation and duration of breastfeeding." | ||
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