Are babies who drink breastmilk really smarter? Breast milk can not only provide the nutrition and immunity needed by the baby, but through the mother’s physiological mechanism, it can also make various ingredients that meet the needs of the child into the child’s exclusive breast milk. If you need to develop your brain, give more relevant ingredients. If you want to grow muscles, it’s okay. Moms are always ready to produce the most suitable breast milk for their children. This is a function that is difficult to replicate in any industry. Therefore, breast milk is said to be the best gift for babies. It is assumed that various research topics related to breastfeeding are the goals of many scholars to explore and understand.
Among them, the study of intellectual development should be one of the most fascinating themes, but so far, there are also studies that point out that the average IQ of children who are breastfed is almost the same as that of children who are not breastfed. This is not knowing how many people have been cold watered. , Sweeping the interest of countless parents. However, the previous evidence that there is no difference in IQ does not mean that there is no difference in new research. Science will continue to change and produce new conclusions. There are still many studies around the world that suggest that breast milk may make babies smarter.
The results of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) to be introduced this time are one of them. The new evidence they put forward this time is related to cognitive ability, and their conclusions should be Make people’s eyes bright, because they found,The length of breastfeeding is related to part of the cognitive development of 9-10 year-old children, and the difference can be seen as long as the child has been breastfeeding for a period of time[1]。
Change the research direction and find the positive evidence between breast milk and intelligence
With the output of various researches, we are able to know that intelligence is affected by many variables, especially factors directly related to parents, such as parents’ socioeconomic status, intelligence level, academic experience, etc., which may enable children to have higher intelligence.In other words, after the researchers compared mothers with the same educational level or economic level, they concluded that their children’s IQ scores may be similar regardless of whether they were breast-feeding or not.
Now that we know that many factors can affect intelligence, we must devote enough effort to the design of the research method, because we must control all the influences as much as possible, so that breastfed children and children who are not breastfed can be compared on the same baseline. Objective differences, or failure to control confounding factors[2]。
However, as mentioned at the beginning, the research goals and methods are different, and the results seen are different. The University of Rochester Medical Center’s research project analyzes the cognitive development of adolescents’ brains.[3](The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study; ABCD Study) data report, you can see the positive relationship between breast milk and cognition, and analyze various cognitive abilities in more detail.[4], Which involves performing various task skills related to perception, learning, memory, comprehension, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intuition and language.
There are many cognitive abilities, what are the research and analysis?
This cognitive study uses ABCD research data to explore, but in order to reduce the impact of measurement errors (for example, children who have been exposed to alcohol exposure, children who did not participate in visits, etc.), the researcher finally retained the data of 9,116 children, and To analyze the relationship between breastfeeding time and neurocognitive ability. What are the dimensions of cognitive ability included in the analysis?
There are three dimensions in total, and they are related to everyone. They are general ability, executive function, and memory. These three abilities have their own explanations, such as general ability. The interpretative definition proposed by the American Psychological Association is an ability that can be measured and is considered a basic ability to handle all tasks related to intelligence.
Next is the executive ability. This ability can be used to manage and control working memory and attention. It is also related to various cognitive processes such as abstract thinking, such as setting goals, imagination, and foresight. The last one is the familiar memory, which is through the brain. The information stored in the system can recall specific information or past experiences.
But can the level of development of these abilities really be measured? Don’t worry, there are many research evidences behind various cognitive abilities, and various measurement methods have been developed to evaluate them. For example, the “Matrix Reasoning Test of the Wei’s Children’s Intelligence Scale” is used in this research to measure perceptual reasoning, organization, spatial information processing and other related abilities; and the NIH Toolbox®-Cognition battery of the National Institutes of Health is also used in this research. In this study, it was integrated and used to evaluate children’s neurological and behavioral functions. In the end, a lot of neurocognitive tests were passed and the results of the study showed that children who eat breastmilk can improve a certain cognitive ability.
Breast milk really helps cognitive ability! Which one is it?
The research needs to analyze general ability, execution ability, and memory. So what is the improvement of ability?Qiang Qiang, the conclusion from the data is that general ability (general ability) is significantly related to the length of breastfeeding[1]. But you may say “how to improve a kind of ability?” At this time, what we need to pay attention to is that the general ability in psychology also includes a variety of abilities, and the general ability is just the collective name of all the directional abilities.
In the study, more than 9,000 children aged 9-10 years old were divided into four groups according to the length of time they took breast milk. The first group was a control group of 0 months, followed by three groups of breast-fed experimental groups, each of which was 1 -6 months, 7-12 months, and breastfeeding babies for more than 12 months, you can see the babies in the 1-6 groups with the shortest breastfeeding period. The results of their general ability test are compared to those without breastmilk. Of babies have improved, and as the time of breast-feeding becomes longer, the children’s general ability development level is getting higher and higher.
Looking at the results from another perspective, today, a certain family chooses to breastfeed, even if the nursing period falls within 2 months or half a year, which is a bit long and not too long, it is also important for the baby’s neurocognitive development. This is also in line with the researcher’s goal, because it is expected to help improve people’s motivation and make more people want to breastfeed. It not only tells every family that they can do what they can, but also calls on the government and social enterprises to do what they can. Put yourself more considerate of mothers.
Research results are important, but “people” should be considered
Various scientific evidence reports related to breastmilk make it self-evident that breastmilk is beneficial to children. The research introduced this time is also, and it can indeed help families make decisions based on these evidences, allowing them to decide whether to breastfeed, but this research The focus of the results is to “encourage” families to choose to breastfeed their babies, rather than “must have to”.
It is undeniable that breastfeeding is a source of stress for mothers. They often hear “the best for babies”, but instead make all kinds of good things pressure, like hearing which mother does not breastfeed their babies, all kinds of criticisms strike, no Breastfeeding becomes a sin. If you choose breastfeeding, you may give up because your family does not support it.
The research really tells us that the willingness to breastfeed and the length of time it involves many factors, among which individual factors such as education level and age will change our minds, as well as environmental and social cultural factors, such as employment issues, husbands The level of support and family attitudes are also greatly mixed in[6]。
Therefore, the discussion between each family and the mother’s personal wishes are very important. After you have reached a consensus, you can make a decision. When you decide to breastfeed your baby, you might as well think about it. The conclusions of the study,“As long as you have given your baby breast milk, you will have the opportunity to improve his specific cognitive abilities.”
Reference
- Lopez, D. A., Foxe, J. J., Mao, Y., Thompson, W. K., Martin, H. J., & Freedman, E. G. (2021). Breastfeeding Duration Is Associated With Domain-Specific Improvements in Cognitive Performance in 9-10-Year-Old Children. Frontiers in public health, 9, 657422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.657422
- Walfisch, A., Sermer, C., Cressman, A., & Koren, G. (2013). Breast milk and cognitive development–the role of confounders: a systematic review. BMJ open, 3(8), e003259. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003259
- https://abcdstudy.org/
- https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-ability
- Natland ST, Andersen LF, Nilsen TI, Forsmo S, Jacobsen GW. Maternal recall of breastfeeding duration twenty years after delivery. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2012 Nov 23;12:179. doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-12-179. PMID: 23176436; PMCID: PMC3568415.
- Shi, H., Yang, Y., Yin, X. et al. Determinants of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months in China: a cross-sectional study. Int Breastfeed J 16, 40 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-021-00388-y
