Story highlights Study finds some short-term cognitive benefit to breastfeeding

Differences between breastfed and non-breastfed children lost by age five

(CNN) While the medical benefits of breastfeeding for helping newborns fight infections and helping pre-term infants get stronger are fairly well established, the long-term impact is much less so.

that breastfeeding has little impact on long-term cognitive development and behavior. While new mothers may debate what they believe to be long-term benefits, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics findsthat breastfeeding has little impact on long-term cognitive development and behavior.

The study followed 7,478 Irish children born full term, from the time they were 9 months old. They were then evaluated at three years and again at five years of age.

At three, the children's parents were asked to fill out questionnaires evaluating vocabulary and problem-solving skills to assess cognition and behavior. At age five, both parents and teachers were asked the same questions.

While the researchers found that those children who were breastfed for six months or more had lower rates of hyperactivity and improved problem-solving skills at three, those differences were negligible by the time the child turned five.

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