DID you get good grades at school? It may be because you were breastfed for more than a year, according to a new study published this week in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The research was undertaken by scientists at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University in the UK, and found children who are breastfed for longer appear to be "more likely to gain slightly better results" in their Year 11 examinations.
The evidence of improved educational outcomes was apparent even when various factors were taken into account, such as parental intelligence and socio-economic status.
Data for the research came from a large cohort of British children enrolled in the so-called Millennium Study, which included almost 19,000 children born between 2000 and 2002.
The kids were followed-up at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14, 17 and 22, with the data linked to the National Pupil Dataset and compared to the results of their secondary examinations.
About a third of participants were never breastfed, while the remainder were breastfed for different periods and only 9.5% were breastfed for at least a year.
More than 30% of the children who were breastfed for 12 months achieved a high pass in mathematics, compared with 11% among non-breastfed kids.
The authors said breastfeeding should be encouraged for a range of benefits beyond simply possible academic improvement.
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