Breastfed Babies More Likely to Succeed in Life

Amy Taylor June 26, 2013

Tweet

Children who were breastfed by their mums had a higher chance of climbing the social ladder and becoming successful professionals in the future. Not only that, they are also less vulnerable to downwards mobility, suggests a large study published in the Archives of Childhood Diseases.

For the study, researchers at University of London and University of Essex followed 7,419 people born in 1958 and 16,771 people born in 1970. The social class of the participants during childhood and adulthood were recorded. When they were at the age of 10 or 11, their social status was based on that of their fathers whereas their adult social class was measured when they reached the age of 33 or 34. Social class was determined using a four-point scale ranging from unskilled, semi-skilled and manual to professional or managerial.

At the start of the study, mums of the participants were asked whether they breastfed their children or not. There were also other factors taken into consideration, such as the child’s cognitive development and stress scores which were measured at the age of 10-11.

After taking into account all other factors, the researchers found that children who were breastfed were consistently more likely to have climbed the social ladder as compared with other children. Findings were the same in the two groups. The researchers noticed however that fewer babies were breastfed in 1970 than in 1958. To be specific, two-thirds of mums, or 68% breastfed their children in 1958 while only one-third or 36% did in year 1970.

They also found that in both groups, breastfeeding increased the odds of upward mobility by 24% and reduced the chances of downward mobility by 20%. Breastfeeding was also found to enhance brain development, which resulted to greater intellectual abilities. Not only that, children who were breastfed showed higher resistance to stress.

According to the researchers, it is difficult to determine what contributed most to these effects – whether the nutrients present in breast milk or the skin-to-skin contact and bonding shared between the mother and the child. "Perhaps the combination of physical contact and the most appropriate nutrients required for growth and brain development is implicated in the better neurocognitive and adult outcomes of breastfed infants," the researchers wrote.

Source of this article:

Breast feeding and intergenerational social mobility: what are the mechanisms?