Breastfeeding, Breast-Milk Feeding, Breast Feeding, and IQ: Unknown and Known Knowns

Breastfeeding Is a Dynamic Biological Process—Not Simply a Meal at the Breast

“…Among the many benefits from breastfeeding during the first year of an infant's life, the effects on long-term cognitive development and IQ have been most controversial. [2][3][4][5][6][7] The reasons for the controversy include methodological limitations in breastfeeding research, inability to adjust for unmeasured confounders (residual confounding), and the possibility that women who can, and choose to, breastfeed may be inherently different from those who cannot, or choose not to, breastfeed their infants. 4 On the other hand, some scientists contend that breastfeeding should be considered the social norm, and lower cognitive scores in infants fed formula should be considered abnormal.…”