The numerous benefits of breastfeeding in the baby are known, among them, which improves cognitive development, which involves processes such as memory, attention, language, perception, problem solving and planning.
Scientists at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) have conducted a study on the subject with children up to four years of age and ensure that Complete breastfeeding between 6 and 12 months favors long-term cognitive development.
They analyzed 657 cases of children born in Sabadell (Barcelona) between July 2004 and July 2006 and followed up from the first ultrasound until the children turned 4 years old.
Long-term breastfeeding, especially full breastfeeding, that is exclusively up to six months as recommended by the UN and then supplemented with solid nutrition, is one of the most studied neurodevelopment factors in recent years.
Among the results of the study, the researchers found that 23% of the mothers had secondary education and were of upper-middle social class, the average age of the mothers was 32 years and 13% of the mothers smoked during pregnancy. 15% of all mothers who breastfed their babies did not do so completely and the average duration was 17 weeks, which is insufficient "to be beneficial for the baby's neurological development."
The study authors acknowledge that there are several difficulties in understanding the factors that are involved in the benefit of breastfeeding, but have ruled out that the intelligence indicators of mothers, psychopathological symptoms, social class and fatty acids of Colostrum (milk from the first days after birth) is behind such association.
But what is certain is that it is a period of critical development in which breast milk brings great benefits. The scientists explain:
The human brain is very sensitive to exposure to environmental risks that occur during periods of special vulnerability. In the first years of life the biological activity of brain development is so frequent that any factor that increases or interrupts this process could result in permanent effects on brain function. A wide range of environmental determinants, including physical, biological, psychological and social factors, modulates the structure and function of the brain where genes and gene expression mechanisms (ie, epigenetic factors) also participate.
