ArticleMaternal and child health journal2013
The effect of breastfeeding on neuro-development in infancy.
Article in Maternal and child health journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Gestational weight gain and offspring's cognitive skills: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2020Pooled it
- Breastfeeding and behavior disorders among children and adolescents: a systematic review.Revista de saude publica · 2018Pooled it
- Efficacy of e-technologies in improving breastfeeding outcomes among perinatal women: a meta-analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2016Pooled it
- Relationship between exclusive breastfeeding and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in children.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Breastfeeding, Mother-Child Dyads of Interaction, and Neurodevelopment of Preterm Children: A Longitudinal Study of Feeding Methods During the First Two Years.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Sex-differences in Mothers' own milk and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Prenatal exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) and child neurodevelopment: The role of breastfeeding duration.The Science of the total environment · 2024Article
- Breastfeeding and neurodevelopment in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Breast milk oxytocin and s-IgA modulate infant biomarkers and social engagement; The role of maternal anxiety.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Maternal antenatal depression's effects on child developmental delays: Gestational age, postnatal depressive symptoms, and breastfeeding as mediators.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Increased Breastfeeding Proportion Is Associated with Improved Gross Motor Skills at 3-5 Years of Age: A Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2022Observational
- Prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and cognitive development in infancy and toddlerhood.Environmental research · 2021Article
- Associations between breastfeeding and cognitive function in children from early childhood to school age: a prospective birth cohort study.International breastfeeding journal · 2020Article
- Helping Mom Help Baby: Nutrition-Based Support for the Mother-Infant Dyad During Lactation.Frontiers in nutrition · 2020Review
- Breastfeeding Duration Is Associated with Regional, but Not Global, Differences in White Matter Tracts.Brain sciences · 2019Article
- The Interaction of Social, Physical and Nutritive Factors in Triggering Early Developmental Language Delay in a Sample of Egyptian Children.Open access Macedonian journal of medical sciences · 2019Article
- Diffusion Tensor MRI of White Matter of Healthy Full-term Newborns: Relationship to Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.Radiology · 2019Article
- Impact of breast milk on respiratory outcomes in infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia.Pediatric pulmonology · 2019Article
- Infant Development at the Age of 6 Months in Relation to Feeding Practices, Iron Status, and Growth in a Peri-Urban Community of South Africa.Nutrients · 2018Article
- Breastfeeding and motor development in term and preterm infants in a longitudinal US cohort.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present study examines whether breastfeeding is associated with neuro-developmental advantages at 9 months of age on a standardised measure of infant development in a large cohort study of Irish children. It is hypothesised that if breast-milk confers an independent benefit, infants who were never breastfed will have reached fewer developmental milestones than those who were partially or exclusively breastfed, after controlling for putative confounding variables. Families with infants aged 9-months were recruited as part of a nationally representative sample for the birth cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland study (n = 11,134). Information was collected from mothers on breastfeeding practices, socio-demographic characteristics and developmental progress during a household interview. Parent-report items on development covered communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving and personal-social skills. Analysis of pass/fail status in each developmental domain using binary logistic regression showed a positive effect of any breastfeeding on gross motor, fine motor, problem solving and personal-social skills (but not communication) and these remained after adjustment for a range of confounding variables. There was, however, little evidence of a dose-response effect or advantage of exclusive over partial breastfeeding. A clear advantage of breastfeeding on infant development was demonstrated. However, the lack of a dose-response association on pass rates suggests that the breastfeeding effect may be confounded by other unobserved factors or that there is a critical threshold during which time the effect of breast milk may be particularly salient for bolstering brain development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.