New proof hyperlinks unique breastfeeding, early play/stimulation to kids's later success
A pair of new studies further strengthen scientific understanding of the links between what a child experiences in the first years of life and later childhood behaviour and abilities. Funded by the Government of Canada through Grand Challenges Canada, researchers working in South Africa and Pakistan report their findings in papers launched today. In the first study, an international team led by Dr Ruth M. Bland of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Institute of Health and Wellbeing , University of Glasgow, assessed over 1,500 children in South Africa, 900 of whom had been involved in an early infant feeding study. They found longer durations of exclusive breastfeeding strongly associated with fewer conduct disorders at ages 7 to 11 years. Children exclusively breastfed for the recommended six months, compared with those exclusively breastfed for less than one month, were approximately half (56 percent) as likely to have conduct disorders at primary school age. Other hi...