A new study suggests a link between breastfeeding and intelligence.Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, used data from two previous studies of breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand, which involved more than 3,000 children. IQ was measured at various points between the ages of five and 13 years in the studies. The London researchers concluded that breastfed babies are brainier! Only last year the Medical Research Council said there was no obvious link between breastfeeding a child and its intelligence – any apparent link was down to the fact that breastfeeding mothers tended to be better off, more highly educated and provider of a more stimulating environment for the baby.
Nonetheless, new research has now found a 'brain boosting gene' which it says is found in mother's milk. According to two new reports from New Zealand and Britain, babies who are breastfed and carry this particular gene end up being seven IQ points higher than babies with the gene who aren't breastfed. Sadly, if you don't have the gene, breastfeeding doesn't make the same kind of difference.
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