May 9, 2011

expert reaction to new research about breast feeding and behaviour to be published in Archives of Disease in Childhood

New research suggested that babies that were breastfed show better behaviour later on than those who were bottle fed.

Prof Peter Kinderman, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool, said:

“This is a very good piece of research published in an important journal. Although I am not surprised by the findings, they are interesting and important.

“The authors hypothesise there are two possible mechanisms by which breast feeding may improve behaviour – that fatty acids in milk may help brain development or that breast feeding may lead to improved interaction between mother and child. I suspect it may be a combination of both mechanisms, but I also suspect that maternal attachment may be more important.

“Research into maternal bonding – including research here at the University of Liverpool – shows that mother rats who interact well with their offspring, by licking and grooming them, moderate the baby rats’ stress response (even affecting mechanisms involving the stress hormone, cortisol, which has a role in development and behaviour). The human version of grooming may include behaviours such as breast feeding and this may be an important feature of bonding between mother and child. Positive bonding between parent and child is known to be fantastically helpful for development. Indeed, in the present study, the authors specifically adjusted their analyses to account for factors such as childcare arrangements and mother-baby attachment, precisely because it is already well-established that these factors are so important.

“This is more evidence of the importance of breast feeding and mother-baby attachment, not just for physical health but also for the psychological development of the child.”

Breast feeding and child behaviour in the Millennium Cohort Study by Katriina Heikkila et al, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, published Monday 9 May 2011.