Exclusive breastfeeding and developmental and behavioral status in early childhood.

• Published in: Nutrients
• Main Authors: Jonsdottir, Olof H, Thorsdottir, Inga, Gunnlaugsson, Geir, Fewtrell, Mary S, Hibberd, Patricia L, Kleinman, Ronald E
• Other Authors: Univ Iceland, Landspitali Natl Univ Hosp Iceland, Unit Nutr Res, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland Univ Iceland, Sch Hlth Sci, Fac Food Sci & Nutr, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland Directorate Hlth, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland Reykjavik Univ, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland UCL Inst Child Hlth, Childhood Nutr Res Ctr, London WC1N 1EH, England Harvard Univ, Sch Med, Massachusetts Gen Hosp Children, Div Global Hlth, Boston, MA 02114 USA Harvard Univ, Sch Med, Massachusetts Gen Hosp Children, Dept Pediat, Boston, MA 02114 USA
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014
• Subjects: Breast Feeding; Child Behavior; Child Development; Child; Preschool; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant Food; Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Male; Milk; Human; Motor Skills; Time Factors; Weaning; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/317453; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5114414

To access publisher's full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field. Breastfeeding during infancy may have beneficial effects on various developmental outcomes in childhood. In this study, exclusively breastfed infants were randomly assigned to receive complementary foods from the age of 4 months in addition to breast milk (CF, n = 60), or to exclusively breastfeed to 6 months (EBF, n = 59). At 18 months and again at 30-35 months of age, the children were evaluated with the Parent's Evaluation of Developmental Status questionnaire (PEDS) and the Brigance Screens-II. The parents completed the PEDS questionnaire at both time intervals and the children underwent the Brigance Screens-II at 30-35 months. At 30-35 months, no significant differences were seen in developmental scores from the Brigance screening test (p = 0.82). However, at 30-35 months a smaller percentage of parents in group CF (2%) had concerns about their children's gross motor development compared to those in group EBF (19%; p = 0.01), which remained significant when adjusted for differences in pre-randomization characteristics (p = 0.03). No sustained effect of a longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding was seen on selected measures of developmental and behavioral status at 18 months, although at 30-35 months, a smaller percentage of parents of children introduced to complementary foods at four months of age expressed concerns about their gross motor development. University of Iceland