A study released last week reports that children breastfeeding for six months or longer has a significantly lower risk for mental health problems such as delinquent, aggressive, and anti-social behavior, and overall are less depressed, anxious or withdrawn later in childhood.
The study, published by an Australian institute for child health research, found that children who were breastfed for less than six months compared to six months or longer had a 52% increased risk of a mental health problem at 2 years of age, a 55% increased risk at age 6, at age 8 the increased risk was 61%, while at age 10 the increased risk was 37%.
Researcher Dr Wendy Oddy said there was growing evidence that bioactive factors in breast milk played an important role in the rapid early brain development that occurs in the first year of life.
"Even when we adjust the results to take into account other factors such as the parents' socio-economic situation, their education, their happiness and family functioning, we see that children that were breastfed for at least six months are at lower risk of mental health problems," Dr Oddy said.
This research comes on the heels of another study published this year which found that breastfed children are better able to cope with stress.
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