Hello, my name is Brandie I am currently attending the University of North Dakota and am a junior nursing student enrolled in a maternal child course. I have been doing research on the nurse’s role in influencing new moms who are unsure of breastfeeding to try it. I have read some articles on breastfeeding and IQ. Every mom wants their child to be intelligent right? A study done with 220 SGA and 299 AGA infants born at full term suggests that infants born at full term scored an average of 11 points higher on cognitive tests if they were exclusively breastfed at least for the first 6 months of life (Cockey, 2002). Pretty impressive!! These infants were evaluated at birth, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 13 months of age. Many thoughts on babies born SGA are to start them on supplements to aid with growth but according to Rao, Hediger, Levine, Naficy, & Vik (2002), this is untrue. These authors found that the babies growth was the same between exclusively breastfed and some times even better than those babies who were supplemented before the age of 6 months. Jacobson and Jacobson (2002), suggest that even children breastfed for more than 12 weeks benefited cognitively from exclusively being fed breast milk. In fact, children who were breastfed averaged 3-4 points higher on cognitive tests than those children who were formula fed. Smith, Durkin, Hinton, Bellinger, and Kuhn (2003), suggest that improved cognitive and academic performance was even higher when they studied babies who were of low birth weight. They state that the DHA in breast milk benefits neurological development. The also conclude that those babies who showed cerebral lesions on ultrasound benefited greatly from breastfeeding. There has been some discussion on whether the mother’s intelligence and socioeconomic status contribute to their child’s IQ? Factors discussed were things such as; mothers who are more intelligent have better access to the benefits of breastfeeding and are therefore more apt to breastfeed and women who are not of poverty status could better provide a more cognitively stimulating environment for their children. The same study conducted by Rao, Hediger, Levine, Naficy & Vic (2002), concluded that the mother’s intelligence and socioeconomic status had minor effects on the child’s IQ when the children were tested at 5 years of age. My question is can I use this information as an incentive for mothers to breastfeed their babies? Why or why not? And have you used this information in your practice to help mothers make a decision about breastfeeding? Thank You, Brandie SN Cockey, C.D. (2002, June/July). Undersize Infants Score Higher IQ If Breastfed Exclusively. AWHONN Lifelines. 6(3). 2. Jacobson, S.W. & Jacobson J.L. (2002). Breastfeeding and IQ: Evaluation of the Socio- Environmental Confounders. Acta Paediatricia. 91. 258-266. Rao, M.R., Hediger, M.L., Levine, R.J., Naficy, A.B., & Vik, T. (2002). Effect of Breastfeeding on Cognitive Development of Infants Born Small For Gestational Age. Acta Paediatricia. 91. 267-274. Smith, M.M., Durkin, M., Hinton, V.J., Bellinger, D., & Kuhn, L. (2003). Influence of Breastfeeding on Cognitive Outcomes at age 6-8 Years: Follow up of Very Low Birth Weight Infants. American Journal of Epidemiology. 158 (11). 1075-1082. *********************************************** 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