Breastfeeding good for babies, researchers confirm
Chelse McKee, staff
A recently released study, started more than 30 years ago, has confirmed that breastfeeding can lead to higher IQs in infants.
The study has shown that when a particular version of the gene FADS2 is present in children, breastfeeding can be effective in raising their IQs as much as nearly seven points.
Terrie Moffitt and her husband, Avshalom Caspi, were the researchers for the study. They studied two groups of breastfed infants, totaling over 3,000 infants from New Zealand and Britain.
The project began in 1972-73 in New Zealand with the first group and the second group was observed much later, in 1994-95 in England.
FADS2 was focused on by Moffitt and Caspi because it produces an enzyme that helps convert dietary fatty acids into the polyunsaturated fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA). Those specific polyunsaturated fatty acids have been shown to collect in the human brain in the first few months after birth and assist in brain development.
Since the first studies correlating breast milk and IQ were released about 10 years ago, formula companies have added DHA and AA to their products.
Moffitt and Caspi found that there was a relationship between nature and nurture — an infant’s intellectual development was ultimately affected by both the gene and the environment of the child.
From the two groups, 90 per cent of the infants had a “C” copy of the FADS2 gene, which yielded a higher IQ if the child was breastfed. The other 10 per cent of the infants had only the “G” version of the gene and showed no change, negative or positive, as the result of being breastfed.
Despite the new information, it’s still suggested by many organizations, including the World Health Organization, that exclusive breastfeeding should not exceed six months, any longer than six months can cause anemia in the infant.
James Friel, a researcher in the area of breastfeeding who is not connected to the study, says that anemia is caused by the low iron levels in breast milk. In breast milk, there is only .03 mgs of iron per litre but an infant requires as much as 15 milograms per litre.
However, breastfeeding, combined with solids rich in iron, can continue up to two years. The first two years of a child’s life, according to the World Health Organization, has been shown to be the most crucial time as the determinant of a child’s growth and health.
Despite the risks, Friel says that the new study is “very exciting [now] that there’s a gene that’s been found.”
According to the Breastfeeding Committee of Canada, the average initiation rate for breastfeeding is 75 per cent, but that rate is lower in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.
