Babies should be exclusively breastfed until six months of age, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which considers it the best food for child development. There is scientific evidence showing that breastfeeding the baby has benefits for mother and child and, in fact, a new study has found another advantage of prolonged breastfeeding because it has revealed that children who are breastfed for longer periods of time may have better academic results.
Previous studies had already shown an association between being breastfed longer and greater success in the studies, but most had not taken into account other factors that could influence the results, such as the fact that mothers with a greater socioeconomic or intellectual status were also more likely to breastfeed longer and to have children who scored better on tests.
The new research findings have been published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood and show that better academic outcomes remain evident even when socioeconomic factors or parental intelligence are taken into account. The authors have concluded that “duration of breastfeeding was associated with better educational outcomes at age 16 among children living in England, after controlling for important confounding factors.”
Less risk of failing in children who were breastfed
The new study has been carried out by researchers at the University of Oxford who analyzed data from a group of British children included in the Millennium Cohort Study, which enrolled 18,818 children born in 2000-2002 who lived in the United Kingdom and who were followed at ages three, five, seven, 11, 14, 17 and 22, and linked them to the National Pupil Dataset, which stores longitudinal academic data on students enrolled in English public schools.
Only 23.7% of children who were breastfed for at least 12 months failed the math test compared to 41.9% of those who were never breastfed
Specifically, they studied 4,940 participants up to the age of 16 and reviewed the results of their secondary education standardized exams (set by the Department for English Education), specifically their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs) in English and mathematics. They also looked at the 8 achievement score, which is the sum of all the GCSEs taken by the children.
Approximately one third of the participants (32.8%) were never breastfed and the rest were breastfed for different periods. Only 9.5% were breastfed for at least 12 months. Analysis of the results revealed that longer breastfeeding was associated with better educational outcomes.
Only around a fifth (19.2%) of children who were breastfed for at least 12 months failed the English GCSE compared to 41.7% of those who had never been breastfed, while 28.5 % of those who were breastfed for at least 12 months achieved a high pass (A and A*) compared to 9.6% of non-breastfed children who did.
For the Mathematics GCSE, only 23.7% of children who were breastfed for at least 12 months failed the test compared to 41.9% of those who never breastfed, while 31.4% of those breastfed for at least 12 months achieved a high pass (A and A*), compared with 11% of non-breastfed children.
After accounting for factors that might have played a role, the general association showed that, compared with children who were never breastfed, those who were breastfed for at least 12 months were 39% more likely to pass both exams and 25% less likely to pass. chances of failing the English test. Those who breastfed for longer had better overall scores in their GCSEs (highest achievement score of 8) than those who never breastfed.
The authors state that their findings are nationally representative for children enrolled in public schools in England and that the large sample size allowed them to detect differences in outcomes between various breastfeeding duration groups. “However, the effect sizes were modest and may be susceptible to residual confounding. Breastfeeding should continue to be encouraged, where possible, as the potential improvements in academic performance are only one of its potential benefits.” “Future studies should adjust both for socioeconomic circumstances (in a comprehensive manner) and for maternal general intelligence,” they conclude.
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