Research links

Breastfeeding Decreases Infant Mortality

Scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences compared the records of 1,204 children who died in their first year of life (not including those that died from congenital anomalies or cancer) with the records of 7,740 children still alive at one year of age. The data showed that infants who were breastfed had 20% lower risk of dying between 28 days of life and one year than those who were not breastfed, and longer breastfeeding was associated with less risk of death. Researchers concluded that promoting breastfeeding can potentially prevent up to 720 postneonatal deaths in the U.S. each year.
Source: May 2004 National Institutes of Health

Breastfeeding Can Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke

In a study spanning over 20 years, the Medical Research Council and Institute of Child Health reinforced the message, "Breast is Best." The research included observational studies and randomized clinical trials that assigned premature babies to different diets and then followed them into adult life. The results showed rapid growing infants to be prone to certain health conditions which increase the risk for heart disease and stroke like obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. The study concluded that "slower growth as a baby reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke in adult life and the best way to achieve this is to breastfeed."
Source: May 2004 Institute of Child Health

Reducing Breast Cancer in African American and White Women

New research demonstrates similar breastfeeding and pregnancy effects on the risk of breast cancer in both white and African American women. Previous studies have demonstrated that the number of pregnancies and the length of time a woman breastfeeds are inversely related to the risk of breast cancer. This study extends the research to include African American women and results show that in African American and white women the risk for breast cancer decreases with each full term pregnancy and decreases as duration of breastfeeding increases.
Source: July 2004 Cancer

Breastfeeding Protects Against Coughing and Rhinitis in Children

A questionnaire about living conditions, breastfeeding and coughing/rhinitis symptoms was completed by 79% of parents with children between the ages of 1 and 6 years in Värmland, Sweden (population 280,000). The data showed an increased risk for cough at night without a common cold, asthma diagnosed by a doctor, rhinitis without a cold during last year and allergic rhinitis diagnosed by a doctor for children that had been breastfed for less than three months, or not at all, compared to children that were breastfed longer than three months.
Source: February 2004 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Breastfeeding May Protect Bone Health of Adolescent Mothers

To investigate the association of breastfeeding during adolescence with bone mineral density (BMD) during young adulthood BMD's were measured and compared in over 800 women. The average BMD of women that breastfed was higher than that of women who did not breastfeed leading researchers to conclude that lactation was not found to be detrimental and may be protective to the bone health of adolescent mothers.
Source: July 2004 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine

Breastfeeding May Lower the Risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Researchers in Sweden compared medical records of healthy infants that had sudden, inexplicable deaths, termed Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), to records of healthy babies. They discovered that infants that were breastfed exclusively for at least the first four months of life were less likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome than those breastfed less than four months. In fact, infants who were breastfed less than 4 weeks were five times more likely to die from SIDS than infants who were breastfed longer than four months.
Source: June 2002 Archives of Disease in Childhood
Links: American SIDS Institute: http://www.sids.org/prevent.htm

Breastfeeding Protects Mothers Against Breast Cancer

Breastfeeding and bearing children reduce a mother's risk for breast cancer. After studying over 140,000 women, researchers concluded that if women in the United States were encouraged to breastfeed for one year, our country could reduce the number of breast cancer cases by 5 percent, or about 10,000 cases. Each child a woman bears reduces her chance of breast cancer by 7 percent. Furthermore, each year a woman breastfeeds reduces her chance of breast cancer by 4.3 percent.
Source: July 17, 2002 The Lancet

Exclusive Breastfeeding Raises IQ

Researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology studied over 500 infants through their fifth year of life to gather data on the cognitive and growth effects of breastfeeding. The study included infants that were full term, but small for gestational age and those that were appropriate for gestational age.

The study discredits the belief that supplementary feedings of formula and cereal, in addition to breast milk, will help smaller infants reach normal size faster than breast milk alone. The study supports previous reports that full term infants of normal size score higher on IQ tests at five years of age when breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life. In addition, the results demonstrate that full term infants that are born small score 11 points higher on an IQ test if they are breastfed exclusively for at least 4 months than those who receive formula or cereal early on.

"Our findings suggest that, whenever possible, exclusive breastfeeding for the first 24 weeks of life is the method of choice to enhance children's cognitive development."
Source: March 2002 National Institutes of Health

Breastfeeding is Associated with Higher IQ Scores

Scientists in Copenhagen and at the Kinsey Institute compared standardized test scores of more than 3,000 middle-aged adults to the length of time, if any, that they were breastfed as infants. The difference in scores between breastfed and not-breastfed individuals were highest on both tests from the groups that had been breastfed for 7-9 months, indicating that breast milk enhances neural development. In addition, it is possible that the interaction between the mother and infant during breastfeeding could influence the infant's future intelligence.
Source: May 8, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association

Breastfeeding Can Lead to Lower Adult Cholesterol Levels

After studying over 1,500 adolescents and reviewing 37 other studies about infant feeding styles and blood cholesterol levels researchers found that adults who had been breastfed as infants had lower cholesterol levels than those who had not been breastfed. The average cholesterol reduction in the adults who had been breastfed was just below 10 milligrams per deciliter. A reduction of this amount in all adults could reduce coronary heart disease by approximately 10 percent.
Source: September 2002 Pediatrics

Breastfeeding Reduces the Risk for Obesity

A study of over 32,000 children found a 30 percent reduction in the risk for obesity of exclusively breastfed children at 3 years of age. Other evidence suggests that the protective effect of exclusive breastfeeding on obesity should persist and possibly increase throughout the breastfed individual's life. This study establishes formula-feeding as a risk factor for obesity.
Source: June 8, 2002 The Lancet