Sep 29, 2008, 3:08 GMT
Dublin, Ireland - Babies who are breastfed for six months are better at identifying and comparing colours, letters, numbers and shapes at the age of three than babies who have not been breastfed, a study of two sets of 18,819 babies born in Britain between 2000 and 2002 by University College Dublin (UCD) revealed recently.
The study examined the optimum duration of breastfeeding and cognitive development as measured by the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, Orla Doyle, a lecturer at UCD's School of Public Health and Population Science, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
She added: 'We found that there is almost no difference in cognitive ability at the age of three for children breastfed for a duration of six or 16 weeks or any period in between. After four months, there is a gradual improvement, peaking at six.'
There was no evidence to suggest that breastfeeding for longer than six months would help improve a baby's mental development, she said.
The research suggests that the 'optimal switching point' from exclusive breastfeeding to a combination of complementary foods and breast milk, as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), occurs at six months and should continue until 10 months.
Debate on the optimum duration of breastfeeding has consequences in terms of maternity leave which comes to six months in Ireland followed by a discretionary six months' unpaid allowance. Recent policy initiatives have been taken in Britain to extend paid maternity leave to 38 weeks and to 52 by 2010. Parents can then decide who stays at home with the infant.
Hitherto studies have usually focused on physical growth and development and while Canadian researchers have found that breastfeeding can improve IQ, Doyle pointed out that cognitive ability and IQ are not identical, but are linked.
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