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
|
