How Does Breast- Feeding impact cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development from Birth to Preschool Years?

Psychology 230 Ms. Linda Pinney

For many years there have been a lot of debates about rather breast-feeding or bottle feeding is better for a baby’s health. For the first few months when a baby is born the main source of an infant’s nutrients and energy either comes from breast milk or alternative formula. The growing census is that breast feeding is better for the baby’s health (Walker, 2010: Wilson, 2010), but how does it differ in the outcome of an infant’s social cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development during the first months and throughout the preschool years? Can breast-feeding really impact the success in a child’s life more than bottle-feeding? A recent Brazilian study showed that SGA babies scored significantly lower on the Bayley mental and motor subscales at 6 months and that the difference increased by 12 months [1]. Some studies followed the children for several years, and the findings sometimes changed with the age of follow-up. In American children who were assessed at 4, 5, and 7 years of age, language development, and reading readiness were worse in children who were not breast fed. Similarly, SGA Guatemalan children who had not been different from NEW children before 12 months had significantly poorer developmental levels in their second year and had lower scores on their cognitive tests. Differences between the groups disappeared on subsequent evaluations at 4 and 5 years [3]. Children who were SGA generally performed worse than those who were NEW in tests of cognition [2,3], IQ, and language [4]. In two studies the SGA group performed worse than the NEW group, but the difference did not reach significant levels, perhaps because the sample sizes were small [5,6].