Breastfeeding makes baby smarter
Posted by JohnF | Posted in Breast Feeding, News | Posted on 07-11-2007
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Breastfeeding makes baby smarter | NEWS.com.au
SCIENTISTS have identified a gene which leads children to have higher IQs if they are breastfed.
The study in New Zealand and the UK took a bite out of the nature versus nurture debate by showing that intellectual development is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors.
“There has been some criticism of earlier studies about breastfeeding and IQ that they didn’t control for socioeconomic status, or the mother’s IQ or other factors,” said study co-author Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Duke University and King’s College in London.
“Our findings take an end-run around those arguments by showing the physiological mechanism that accounts for the difference.”
Researchers examined more than 3000 breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand and found that the child’s IQ was an average of 6.8 points higher if the child had a particular version of a gene called FADS2.
Read the full story Breastfeeding makes baby smarter | NEWS.com.au