Every parent wants his or her child to be the most smart, cute, happy, etc. child. If there is a way that a parent could do something to contribute to the child, well in most cases parents will not hesitate to comply. An example is my when my cousin was pregnant she would actually play classical music while she slept in order to stimulate her unborn baby’s brain. Some people can see through the crazy theories and do not do anything too unnecessary. However when my mother was pregnant it was widely known that if she breast fed my siblings and I then we would be smarter because it caused an increase of cognitive development. I wonder is this widely accepted theory true or just another myth?

It has been considered a fact that breastfeeding infants for as long as possible is beneficial for the cognitive growth of the infant. This theory seems very clear-cut and probable because long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are found in breast milk and have a positive impact on brain development. However in my research I was able to find a blog from The New York Times that concluded from a study that there is no significant correlation between breastfeeding and children’s IQ. Instead there are many variables that are attributed with the results because so many different factors contribute to gains in IQ. The study features 11,582 children and two-thirds were breastfed for about four months and then they administered an intelligence test when the children turned 16. The results showed a weak and statistically insignificant outcome and concluded that breastfeeding infants did not truly impact intelligence. While this article and study seem legitimate majority if not all of the other information I found on breastfeeding and IQ supported the claim that it positively impacts cognitive development.

An article from livescience.com featured a study in which each additional month that infants were breastfed increased their results on a test at age 3. This study shows a very strong correlation with breastfeeding and intelligence, and even further that economic status and mother’s education level were both controlled for. That means that the results were not due to a difference in either of those variables. Repetition of these studies and more experimentation is the only way to differentiate which of these outcomes has more support.

A meta-analysis of the studies done on the connection between breastfeeding and IQ scores according to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition illustrated that the second study I looked at was more accurate because breastfeeding was associated with significantly higher scores for cognitive development then formula feeding. Meta-analysis according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance. So meta-analysis of breastfeeding studies shows a stronger correlation because it looks at many different studies on the same topic and quantifies them as a whole.

Overall I think that breast-feeding infants is a very personnel decision and it is hard to determine what is best for every individual baby. When it comes to suggesting what scientifically is the best way for mothers to give their newborns nutrients, the data ultimately supports that breastfeeding is beneficial.