Hello! My name is Andrea Montonye and I am a junior nursing student at the University of North Dakota. I am currently taking a childbearing class and will soon be doing clinicals on the OB unit. I joined this listserv a few weeks ago and have enjoyed learning about the different topics that have been discussed so far. I have learned a lot this past year about the topic of breastfeeding and have found it to be particularly interesting. I did some research on the subject and found that there are numerous advantages of breastfeeding over formula feeding. One advantage I came across was the influence breastfeeding has on cognitive development. According to Drane and Logemann (2000), nineteen studies found a statistically significant advantage in cognitive development to children who were partially or exclusively breastfed compared with children who were formula fed. A study done four years later also examined the influence of breastfeeding on cognitive development. The importance of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCP) in the infant’s neurologic development, and their presence in maternal milk, may in part account for the effect of breastfeeding on the results of mental development or intelligence testing. Cognitive development was analyzed using the Bayley Infant Development Tests, which assess both mental and psychomotor development on a dual index. The study found that at 24 months of age, infants breastfed for longer than four months scored higher than those breastfed for four months or less and higher than formula fed infants (Gomez-Sanchiz, Canete, Rodero, Baeza, & Gonzalez, 2004). The benefits stated above were not only evident at 24 months of age, but also at ages four and eleven. This was concluded in another study that analyzed the correlation of cognitive development and breastfeeding. The study showed that children who were breastfed in infancy had significantly higher scores on IQ tests at both ages, even after adjusting for social class and education (Jacobson, Chiodo, & Jacobson, 1999). A study conducted by Angelsen, Vik, Jacobsen, and Bakketeig (2001) showed that at five years of age, the mean total IQ was lower in children breastfed for less than three months compared to children breastfed for at least six months. Children breastfed for less than three months had a higher risk, compared children breastfed for at least six months, of having a low total IQ score. My question is what have you seen or heard about the correlation between breastfeeding and cognitive development in infants? Thank you, Andrea Montonye, SN References Angelsen, N., Vik, T., Jacobsen, G., & Bakketeig, L. (2001). Breastfeeding and cognitive development at age 1 and 5 years. Arch Dis Child, 85: 183- 188. Drane, D.L. & Logemann, J.A. (2000). A critical evaluation of evidence on association between type of infant feeding and cognitive development. Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemeology, 14: 349-356. Gomez-Sanchiz, M., Canete, R., Rodero, I., Baeza, J., & Gonzalez, J. (2004, October). Influence of breastfeeding and parental intelligence on cognitive development in the 24-month-old child. Clinical Pediatrics, 43, 8: 753-761. Jacobson, S.W., Chiodo, L.M., & Jacobson, J.L. (1999, May). Breastfeeding effects on intelligence quotient in 4- and 11-year-old children. Pediatrics, 103: 71-76. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html