Proven Benefits of Breastfeeding for Both Mum and Baby

Recent studies have claimed a growing number of advantages of breastfeeding for both the child and the mother.

Breastfed offspring are smarter

A new Australian study has found children who were breastfed for six months or more performed much better in intelligence checks. Researchers from the Telethon Institute for Child Research studied more than 1,000 children.

Their research showed that boys who had been breastfed tallied much higher in reading, maths and spelling. The results were less apparent in girls.

The study's author, Associate Professor Wendy Oddy, states that the study displayed the long-term advantages of breastfeeding. There are crucial nutrients in breast milk that support mind development, especially for long chain fatty acids.

Breastfed offspring make better teens

Researchers are advising that mothers should breastfeed their offspring fo more than six months. They discovered a connection between breastfeeding and progeny mental health that extended to the child's teenage years.

The 14-year study released in the Journal of Paediatrics pursued nearly 3,000 women in Western Australia and followed the development of their offspring through to early adolescence. The women who took part in the study breastfed their offspring for various extents of time. Some women did not breastfeeding their offspring at all, others breast fed their babies for six months or more.

The behaviour attributes of the children where compared as teenagers. One of the study's authors, Professor Sven Silburn from the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, stated that the researchers found that for each additional month that a progeny was breastfed demeanour of the child in their teenage years improved.

Breastfeeding for six months or longer is positively linked with mental wellbeing and health in young children and adolescents.

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Benefits Image 1. Source: Public Domain
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Benefits Image 2. Source: Public Domain

Breastfeeding Slashes Diabetes Risk in Mothers

An Australian study of more than 50,000 women displays that those with young children are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. However, the study released in the US journal 'Diabetes Care' showed that breastfeeding can counteract the risk to some extent.

The study was undertaken as part of the '45 and Up' study, which is Australia's biggest long-run study of ageing.

University of Western Sydney investigator Dr Bette Liu states that mothers who choose not to breastfeed their children were found to be 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those mothers who did not have children.

The study found that having young children appeared to boost the risk that a woman might develop diabetes later in life.

But the risk was reduced if their babies were breastfed for at least three months.

The breast feeding brought the risk back to that of women who had no children.

Known General Benefits of Breastfeeding

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Benefits Image 3. Source: Public Domain
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Benefits Image 4. Source: Public Domain
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Benefits Image 5. Source: Public Domain
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Benefits Image 6. Source: Public Domain
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Benefits Image 7. Source: Public Domain

Babies Who are Not Breastfed

Benefits of Breastfeeding for the Baby (from preceding studies)

Benefits to the Mother Who Beast Feeds Their Babies

Various research investigations have shown that breastfeeding improves the wellbeing of the mothers as well as their babies.