Breastfeeding and Later Psychosocial Development of Children at 6 Years of Age

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of breastfeeding duration with psychosocial development at 6 years of age. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2005–2007 Infant Feeding Practices Study II and its 2012 Year 6 Follow-Up (N = 1442). Our breastfeeding duration variable combined overall and exclusive breastfeeding reported during infancy (never breastfed, breastfed RESULTS: Compared with children who were never breastfed, those who were breastfed for ≥6 months and exclusively breastfed for ≥3 months had decreased odds of difficulties with emotional symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.27–0.99), conduct problems (OR: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.10–0.54), and total difficulties (OR: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.18–0.85) before adjustment. These associations were no longer significant after adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Although in our unadjusted analyses we observed significant associations between breastfeeding duration and later psychosocial development, including decreased odds of emotional, conduct, and total difficulties at 6 years of age, these findings were no longer detectable after adjusting for the many potential confounding factors that play a role in psychosocial development.