Effect of breast feeding on intelligence in children: prospective study, sibling pairs analysis, and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the importance of maternal intelligence, and the effect of controlling for it and other important confounders, in the link between breast feeding and children's intelligence.

Design

Examination of the effect of breast feeding on cognitive ability and the impact of a range of potential confounders, in particular maternal IQ, within a national database. Additional analyses compared pairs of siblings from the sample who were and were not breast fed. The results are considered in the context of other studies that have also controlled for parental intelligence via meta-analysis.

Setting

1979 US national longitudinal survey of youth.

Subjects

Data on 5475 children, the offspring of 3161 mothers in the longitudinal survey.

Main outcome measure</

SUBMITTER: Der G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1633819 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature