May 6, 2023 – A brand new study suggests that breastfeeding during infancy could affect a baby’s later school test scores.
The study conducted within the UK was published in Archive for childhood diseases. They followed 5,000 children from infancy within the early 2000s through highschool. They were divided into three groups – not breastfed; breastfed for a number of months; and breastfed for greater than 12 months. The researchers checked the kids's results on the General Certificate of Secondary Education test.
The researchers found that longer breastfeeding “was associated with modest improvements in academic performance,” they wrote. Children who were breastfed for at the very least a 12 months were 39% more more likely to perform higher on math and English exams than children who weren't breastfed, and were greater than 20% less more likely to fail an English test.
The findings don't mean that each child needs to be breastfed, said lead study creator Reneé Pereyra-Elías, MD, a doctoral student and researcher on the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit on the University of Oxford.
He said CNN.com that breastfeeding shouldn't be all the time possible and that nobody needs to be afraid of harming a baby by doing so.
Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics on the Open University in England, said the survey showed only a correlation, not a causal relationship.
“It's impossible to say for sure what caused what,” said McConway, who was not involved within the investigation.
Wealthier British moms breastfeed more often and their children are likely to do well in class, he said. “That doesn't mean that it's breastfeeding that's boosting children's school performance – it could of course be another aspect of the fact that their family is relatively well off.”