Skip to main content
Archives of Disease in Childhood logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood
. 1988 Nov;63(11):1382–1385. doi: 10.1136/adc.63.11.1382

Mother's choice to provide breast milk and developmental outcome.

R Morley 1, T J Cole 1, R Powell 1, A Lucas 1
PMCID: PMC1779171  PMID: 3202647

Abstract

The association between a mother's choice to provide breast milk and her baby's developmental status at 18 months post term was investigated in 771 low birthweight infants from five centres. Babies whose mothers chose to provide milk had an 8 point advantage in mean Bayley mental developmental index over infants of mothers choosing not to do so. A 4.3 point advantage remained after adjusting for demographic and perinatal factors. A similar finding was derived using a fundamentally different and questionnaire based test (academic scale of Developmental Profile II). Whether this significant residual developmental advantage relates to parental factors or to a beneficial effect of human milk itself on brain development has important implications for the nutritional management of premature babies.

Full text

PDF
1382

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Broad F. E. The effects of infant feeding on speech quality. N Z Med J. 1972 Jul;76(482):28–31. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Lucas A., Cole T. J., Morley R., Lucas P. J., Davis J. A., Bamford M. F., Crowle P., Dossetor J. F., Pearse R., Boon A. Factors associated with maternal choice to provide breast milk for low birthweight infants. Arch Dis Child. 1988 Jan;63(1):48–52. doi: 10.1136/adc.63.1.48. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Lucas A., Gore S. M., Cole T. J., Bamford M. F., Dossetor J. F., Barr I., Dicarlo L., Cork S., Lucas P. J. Multicentre trial on feeding low birthweight infants: effects of diet on early growth. Arch Dis Child. 1984 Aug;59(8):722–730. doi: 10.1136/adc.59.8.722. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Rodgers B. Feeding in infancy and later ability and attainment: a longitudinal study. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1978 Aug;20(4):421–426. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1978.tb15242.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Silva P. A., Buckfield P., Spears G. F. Some maternal and child developmental characteristics associated with breast feeding: a report from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study. Aust Paediatr J. 1978 Dec;14(4):265–268. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1978.tb02996.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Taylor B. Breast versus bottle feeding. N Z Med J. 1977 Mar 23;85(584):235–238. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Taylor B., Wadsworth J. Breast feeding and child development at five years. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1984 Feb;26(1):73–80. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1984.tb04409.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES