Breastfed babies less likely to develop learning disability, study finds
The report also found women struggle to nurse for the recommended first 6 months of their child's life
Last updated 7th Apr 2023
Children who were exclusively breastfed or fed a mixture of formula and breastmilk for the first six to eight weeks of life are less likely to experience special educational needs or learning disabilities, according to a study.
Led by the University of Glasgow and published in the Plos Medicine journal, the research studied data from 190,000 children to understand the impact of early life feeding on later development.
The findings suggest that having breastmilk in the first few weeks of life may help to reduce the risk of having special educational need, or the learning disabilities and difficulties that often cause this.
World Health Organisation guidance recommends that babies are breastfed for the first six months.
However, many women struggle to exclusively breastfeed for this long.
'Beneficial for development'
This study provides evidence that a shorter duration of non-exclusive breastfeeding may still be beneficial for a child's later learning development.
Researchers looked at the health and educational data for 191,745 children born in Scotland from 2004 onwards.
They also looked at who attended a mainstream or special educational needs school between 2009 and 2013.
Of those included in the study, 66.2% of children were formula fed, 25.3% were breastfed, and only 8.5% were mixed fed for the first six to eight weeks.
Overall, 12.1% of children in this study had a special educational need.
But when compared with formula feeding, a history of early-life mixed feeding and exclusive breastfeeding were both associated with a decrease in the risk of having a special educational need - around 10% and 20% less likely, respectively.
Exclusively breastfed children were also less likely to have emotional or behavioural difficulties (around 20% less likely) and physical health conditions (around 25% less likely).
Children with special educational needs on average experience lower educational attainment, higher rates of school absenteeism and exclusion, and higher rates of bullying and maltreatment, which can all further impact on their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
'Many women struggle'
Dr Michael Fleming, who led the study at the University of Glasgow's School of Health and Wellbeing, said: "We know that many women struggle to exclusively breastfeed for the full six months recommended by the WHO.
"Our study provides evidence that a shorter duration of non-exclusive breastfeeding could nonetheless be beneficial with regards to a child's learning development.
"The results of this study suggest that feeding method in infancy could be a modifiable risk factor for the causes of special educational need, which in turn has the potential to help reduce the burden for affected children, their families and wider society."
'Breastfeeding has been hidden'
Angela Chalmers is a lactation consultant who offers support and guidance for breastfeeding women
She does this through her business, Latch on Lanarkshire, which she started after retiring as a nurse and health visitor.
She says many mums still face barriers: "100 years ago, everyone was breastfeeding.
"You would've learned it as a child because you would've watched everyone else around you breastfeed.
"The problem with today is that breastfeeding has been hidden, and it's something women only do behind closed doors.
"We are not a breastfeeding culture in Scotland.
"Certainly in Lanarkshire we're a bottle-feeding culture.
"I've been doing this for over 20 years and we've been desperately trying, but it's very difficult to change a culture.
"The most important thing for mums is to get that support right at the beginning of pregnancy, but loads of mums don't and give it up way before they planned to.
"When mums are questioned about their experience, they say they stopped because they just found it too difficult and the support wasn't there."