Are Breastfed Babies Smarter?
A study published in the May issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry adds to the body of evidence showing that breastfeeding improves IQ. According to lead author, Michael S. Kramer, M.D., exclusive breastfeeding for at least 3 months and prolonged breastfeeding for at least 1 year makes kids smarter. Prior studies found an association between breastfeeding and IQ, but most of the studies were observation studies in which the sample was self-selected—children of mothers who choose to breastfeed were compared with children whose mothers chose not to breastfeed. Because mothers who choose to breastfeed may interact with their children in a different way, there is no way to insure that the differences in IQ are due to breastfeeding. Cluster-randomized trial In contrast, the large-scale study by Kramer and colleagues included nearly 14,000 mother/child pairs. Mothers and children were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group of mothers (the control group) received routine mate
