by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting

Breastfeeding your child likely won?t make him smarter or better behaved than his non-breastfed peers over the long-term, but it could reduce hyperactivity in the toddler years, new research indicates.
While there are numerous benefits to breastfeeding ? it?s known to protect babies from illnesses and allergies, for example ? the long-term effects on intelligence and behavior have been debated. Although some studies show breastfeeding may boost children?s intelligence into the school-age years, the new study published in the journal Pediatrics suggests there are no long-term cognitive benefits.
Researchers followed about 8,000 Irish children from 9 months through 5 years old. At age 3 and again at age 5 they assessed the children?s problem solving and vocabulary skills, as well as any problem behaviors.
The initial results did show that children breastfed as babies scored higher on intelligence tests and had fewer behavior problems at age 5 than children who had not been breastfed. However, once the researchers took into account the moms' education and income levels, the differences disappeared.
Moms who breastfeed often have more education and higher incomes than moms who don?t breastfeed. The study results suggest these factors contributed to the higher intelligence scores among breastfed children rather than the breastfeeding itself.
Only one difference remained after the adjustment: Children breastfed for at least 6 mon...