Trivia: Breastfeeding

• No more than 35% of infants worldwide are exclusively breastfed during the first four months of life. (Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, 2003)

• An article in the April 2007 issue of Acta Paediatrica looked at 3,734 Greek women and found that, surprisingly, mothers who worked outside the home breastfed more than stay-at-home mothers.

• Not surprisingly, moms of singletons are much more likely to breastfeed than moms of twins, triplets, or more. The authors found that the rate of exclusive breastfeeding was 4.1% among twins or triplets, and 44.7% among singletons. (Twin Research and Human Genetics, April 2006)

• Overweight and obese women are more likely to have discontinued breastfeeding at any time before six months than normal weight women. (The Journal of Pediatrics, August 2006)

• One study published on October 4, 2006 in the British Medical Journal reported that breastfeeding had little or no direct effect on children's intelligence, rather that higher IQs resulted because the babies' moms tended to be more intelligent and better educated, and provided a more stimulating home environment. However, more recent research is challenging this view. A paper published online on November 5, 2007 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found breastfeeding led to higher IQs – provided that the baby had the right gene to digest the milk. And findings from the largest randomized breastfeeding trial, which were published in the May 2008 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, concluded that the study "…provide(s) strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children's cognitive development."

• Breastfeeding for longer than three months may protect against bedwetting during childhood – but breast milk supplemented with formula did not make a difference in rate of bedwetting. (Pediatrics, July 2007)

• Breastfeeding may protect kids from asthma later in life, but only if the mother doesn't have asthma herself. (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, November 2007)

• For HIV+ moms, exclusive breastfeeding for six months significantly reduces the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission. (The Lancet, online March 31, 2007)

• Adults who were breastfed as babies had higher levels of HDL cholesterol ("good cholesterol") and a lower average BMI. (American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2007)

• Breastfeeding reduces babies' risk for SIDS, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, severe lower respiratory tract infections, childhood leukemia, non-specific gastroenteritis, acute otitis media, and necrotizing enterocolitis. (Evidence Report/Technology Assessment, April 2007)

• Women who breastfeed longer have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. (The Journal of the American Medical Association, November 23/30, 2005)

• There is strong evidence that breastfeeding protects women from breast cancer at all ages, and there's some evidence that it also offers protection from ovarian cancer. (Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective, 2007)

• Women who did not breastfeed or stopped early had a higher risk for postpartum depression. (Evidence Report/Technology Assessment, April 2007)

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