Babies who are breast-fed do "better" in life than others, researchers reveal today.
Breast-fed babies enjoy upwards social mobility – and also less downward mobility than bottle-fed babies, according to a major study, published at the launch of Breastfeeding Awareness Week.
Researchers studied the fate of more than 33,000 British babies, half of them born in 1958 and half in 1970.
The research shows how breast-feeding rates declined in the 1960s.
In 1958 two thirds of babies were breast-fed while by 1970 the proportion had fallen to 36%.
The study, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, shows that both groups of breast-fed babies enjoyed more social mobility than the bottle-fed babies.
The researchers say most of this was because of improvements in intellect and stress levels.
Professor Amanda Sacker, of University College London, says: "Perhaps the combination of physical contact and the most appropriate nutrients required for growth and brain development is implicated in the better neurocognitive and adult outcomes of breast-fed infants."
Archives of Disease in Childhood 25 June 2013; doi 10.1136/archdischild-2012-303199
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