Study: How Long You Breastfeed May Affect Your Child’s Test Scores

There are a lot of benefits to breastfeeding, including that it helps protect babies from illnesses like asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes and ear infections, according to the CDC. Well, now according to CNN, there is new research out this week suggests there’s another benefit for kids who are breastfed - they may do better on tests when they’re older.

The study followed 5-thousand British children from when they were babies in the early 2000s through their last year of high school. The kids were split into groups based on how long they were breastfed: not at all, just a few months, or for a year or longer. Researchers then compared their scores on the U.K.’s General Certificate of Secondary Education testing, standard tests given in their final years of secondary school.

Lead study author Dr. Reneé Pereyra-Elías says their team finds there was a “modest improvement” in test scores of those who were breastfed longer. Compared to kids who weren’t breastfed at all, those who were breastfed for at least a year were 39% more likely to get a high score on both math and English exams and they were 25% less likely to fail the English exam. The results only show a correlation between breastfeeding and test scores, not that breastfeeding causes higher test scores, but it’s another benefit that may encourage moms to breastfeed.

Source: CNN