Duration of breastfeeding and developmental milestones during the latter half of infancy

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that breastfeeding has a long‐term influence on brain development. However, interpretation of these findings is complicated by the presence of many potential confounding factors. Only a few studies have examined infants before 1 y of age, although very early assessment might reduce the role of environmental influence. We investigated the association between exclusive breastfeeding and three developmental milestones related to general and fine motor skills and early language development at the age of 8 mo. We followed 1656 healthy, singleton, term infants, with a birthweight of at least 2500 g, born between May 1991 and February 1992 in Aarhus, Denmark. Information was collected at 16 wk gestation, at delivery and when the infant was 8 mo old. Motor skills were evaluated by measurement of crawling and pincer grip. Early language development was defined as the ability to babble in polysyllables. The proportion of infants who mastered the specific milestones increased consistently with increasing duration of breastfeeding. The relative risk for the highest versus the lowest breastfeeding category was 1.3 (95% CI: 1.0‐1.6) for crawling, 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1‐1.3) for pincer grip and 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3–1.8) for polysyllable babbling. Little change was found after adjustment for confounding. In conclusion, our data support the hypothesis that breastfeeding benefits neurodevelopment.

Associations Between Breastfeeding Practices and Young Children's Language and Motor Skill Development

“…Children who are not breastfed are at increased risk of respiratory tract infection, otitis media, diarrhea, necrotizing enterocolitis, undernutrition, and childhood overweight. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Maternal health risks associated with not breastfeeding include increased risk of postpartum blood loss, premenopausal breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. [7][8][9] Many medical and professional groups such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and others advocate human milk as the gold standard for infant feeding.…”

“…10 Among the benefits attributed to feeding children human milk rather than substitutes such as infant formula are earlier or advanced language and motor skills development. 5,[11][12][13][14] Research findings, however, have been inconsistent; some studies find no effect from breastfeeding, 14 and others show beneficial effects on children's development attributable to breastfeeding or feeding children human milk. 5,13,15,16 In addition, previous studies suffered from limitations such as failing to control adequately for potential confounding variables, using a small sample size, 5 or focusing only on specific types of children, such as those in a certain age range 5,11,13 or twins, 14 thereby raising questions of generalizability.…”

“…5,[11][12][13][14] Research findings, however, have been inconsistent; some studies find no effect from breastfeeding, 14 and others show beneficial effects on children's development attributable to breastfeeding or feeding children human milk. 5,13,15,16 In addition, previous studies suffered from limitations such as failing to control adequately for potential confounding variables, using a small sample size, 5 or focusing only on specific types of children, such as those in a certain age range 5,11,13 or twins, 14 thereby raising questions of generalizability.The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge and understanding of the relationships between breastfeeding and development of young children's language and motor skill development. Using data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), we examined the associations of breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration with expressive and receptive language development and with fine and gross motor skill development in a nationally representative sample of US children aged 10 to 71 months.…”

Pregnancy outcomes among female hairdressers who participated in the Danish National Birth Cohort

“…Genetic, environmental, and social factors are important determinants of neurodevelopment (23,27). The slightly earlier language development among the children of the hairdressers may have been due to better environmental stimulation in early childhood, since the hairdressers had shorter workhours than the shop assistants.…”

The Long-Term Effects of Breastfeeding on Development

“…Studies that examined developmental time points have observed advantages of breastfeeding in comparison with not breastfeeding for infant development that can be observed from the neonatal period (Hart, Boylan et al 2003), through to infancy (Vestergaard, Obel et al 1999), early childhood (Fergusson, Beautrais et al 1982), midchildhood (Oddy, Robinson et al 2011), adolescence (Oddy, Kendall et al 2010) and into midlife (Richards, Hardy et al 2002). Some reviews and individual studies have found the protective effect of a longer duration of breastfeeding on child behaviour and cognition to be an artifact of sociodemographic confounding rather than a true association.…”