Some Maternal and Child Developmental Characteristics Associated with Breast Feeding: A Report from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study

Abstract

Some maternal and child developmental characteristics associated with breast feeding: A report from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study. A study of some maternal, experiential, and developmental characteristics of 1037 three‐year‐old children who were breast fed for varying lengths of time was described. The results indicated that those children who breast fed longest had advantaged mothers and more developmental experiences. When these differences were controlled by matching breast fed with non breast fed children, there were no significant advantages in developmental status found consistently to characterise the breast fed children. It was concluded that alleged “probable” developmental benefits to children from breast feeding should be more properly considered “possible”. Copyright © 1978, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved