200 Reasons to Breastfeed

The abundance of good things in mother'’s milk offers your baby lifelong benefits.

By Cori Vanchieri

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It may make your baby smarter
In addition to making your child healthier, breastfeeding may also make him smarter. In fact, the advantage that breastfeeding provides for brain development is striking, Georgieff says. A 1992 Lancet study reported as much as an eight-point increase in IQ among breastfed preemies. A 1999 analysis of 11 studies on childhood intelligence, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed more conservative but still-significant results: Full-term babies who were exclusively breastfed until at least 8 weeks of age gained three IQ points over infants who were formula-fed; preemies gained more than five points.

“The available data suggest that a three- to five-point increase in IQ would significantly increase academic performance, decrease dropout rates from school, and result in higher incomes and social adjustments,” says study author James W. Anderson, M.D., professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the VA Medical Center and at the University of Kentucky, both in Lexington.

You will benefit, too
Benefits for the nursing mother are just as impressive. The hormones released during breastfeeding curb blood loss post-delivery and help the uterus shrink back to size. And some nursing moms report that they burn calories like crazy, helping them back into their favorite jeans.

Long term, the nursing mother has a lowered risk for premenopausal breast cancer, the kind that strikes before age 50. The benefit begins to show with three to six months of breastfeeding and increases the longer that nursing continues. The risk for ovarian cancer is also reduced for women who breastfeed.

By now, you should have no question that breast milk is one power-packed beverage. So as you begin planning for your baby’s future, make a commitment to nurse him for as long as you can. It will do both your bodies good.

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