We often hear about the many health benefits of breastfeeding, but it's less common to see evidence that breastfeeding helps children develop emotionally. I'm hoping that you'll offer your thoughts about this connection.
I've been mulling over a study published in the August edition of the Archives of Disease in Childhood which found that babies who were breastfed, even briefly, had better ability to cope with stress as older children.
The study measured the anxiety levels of a group of nearly 9,000 children born in 1970 in Great Britain whose parents were divorced or separated. The children studied were 10 years old at the time their stress levels were recorded.
The researchers found that children of divorce and separation who were breastfed were less likely to exhibit symptoms of anxiety than children of divorce and separation who were not breastfed, even when controlling for other factors.
The authors offer several possible explanations for this connection. They suggest that breastfeeding could be a "marker" of the way in which they were parented. They also suggest that frequent maternal contact (like breastfeeding) could better develop babies' chemical response to stress, as has been shown in other animals. Finally, they suggest that a component of breastmilk called leptin might reduce stress through its action on the brain.
I'm curious about the profile of women who breastfed in 1970, a pretty unfriendly time to breastfeeding. What were the characteristics of mothers who chose to breastfeed in spite of considerable pressure not to, and how did those traits impact their children?
What do you think the connection is?
