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American Morning

The Big Question: Can Breast Feeding Make Your Baby Smarter?

Aired May 08, 2002 - 08:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The Big Question at this hour, can breast feeding make your baby smarter? We've all heard of the health benefits of it but now there is a fascinating new study out today that finds that infants who are breast-fed actually grow up to be more intelligent than other babies.

And CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from Atlanta with a mother's perspective on this study, and I'd like to chime in after I hear your perspective.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I think every mom has a perspective on this issue. I haven't met one who's silenced. Let's talk about the study first. The study is worthy of note, because what they did is they took kids born around the late '50s, early '60s, documented whether or not they were breast-fed, and then at age 27, they measured their I.Q. to see how they did.

Here's what the results were: The breast-fed babies -- I'm sorry, babies who were not breast-fed or were breast-fed for less than one month, their average I.Q., 99. Babies breast-fed from seven to nine months had an I.Q. of 106. Those numbers are worth paying attention to because the average is about I.Q., so called normal would be about 100. Sort of so-called normal would be about 100. So the babies that weren't breast-fed were right around there. The babies who were breast-fed were slightly higher.

It's not way, way higher. This is not the difference between a stupid person and an Einstein. This is the difference between sort of normal and a little bit higher, but still within the normal range.

So that leads me to my personal mommy's perspective, which is that I got a phone call from a friend of mine last week who just had a baby and she was crying so hard that I could barely understand her, but the gist of it was she was trying so hard to breast-feed her baby. She's a very well educated, very smart woman. She had lactation counselors coming into her apartment to help her out. She couldn't make it work. She was so frustrated and so sad, because she was convinced she would have this sick, not very smart baby on her hands a couple of years later, and it really took a lot of calming down to convince her the baby would be OK.

Yes, breast-feeding is best, there is no question. Study after study shows it's best for the baby's physical health. It's best for the baby's intellectual health. However, the differences are not absolutely gigantic. You will -- even if you don't breast-feed your baby, the baby will be fine. Many people in our generation, Paula, were not breast-fed and they still are perfectly smart. I have another friend who said that she was so frustrated it wasn't working, she went through an entire box of Kleenex in one hour, and certainly guilt-ridden sad mommies are not any good either --Paula.

ZAHN: Yes, but then what about those of us that went back to work and had to stop at three months? You know, those kids certainly derive some benefit, but how much? We could beat ourselves up all day long, couldn't we?

COHEN: Exactly. And that's exactly the point I'm trying to make, is that beating ourselves up is not a good thing. Yes, breast- feeding is good, but it's also not a good thing to beat yourself up. It's not good for you and it's not good for the baby. Three months confers some benefit in this study and other studies have found that nine months confers more. What's interesting about this, they found beyond nine months did not give any more of a benefit. It didn't seem to help. Yes, any breast milk is good for a baby, the more the better. But even if you don't do it at all, your baby will still be OK.

ZAHN: Put up on the screen some of these statistics that would show that study after study has basically said the same thing. Are women really paying attention to these numbers?

COHEN: They've right, study after study has said breast feeding is good, both physically and for a baby's brain.

Women are sort of kind of listening. Let's look at what the statistics are. Early postpartum breast-feeding rates, in other words, a few days or maybe a week or so after birth, 64 percent of women have put the baby to the breast. However, when you check in on them six months later, only 29 percent are still breast feeding, and at one year, at the baby's first birthday, 16 percent are breast- feeding. So the word has gotten out, but obviously, there's some disconnect there.

ZAHN: Well, I mean, women have a lot of distractions and when they have other kids, it's much tougher to keep up with the regimen, isn't it?

COHEN: Exactly. I think it is much tougher. It's much tougher when you go back to work. Breast feeding for some people is the easiest thing in the world. They take to it naturally. For other people, it is not so easy. Now, breast feeding advocates would say, well, that's the fault of society, it's because society makes it difficult, or it's the fault of doctors. They often blame MDs, saying that pediatricians don't support breast feeding enough.

I would venture to say, and this is just my personal opinion, because there's never been a study on it, that there's some disconnect between the lactation education that women are getting and the reality, because I know plenty of women who sought out lactation advisers, who did everything they possibly could, and they still couldn't make it work, they still ended up in tears.

ZAHN: Yes, and that's the last thing you want to feel after you've had a brand new baby come into your life, to feel guilty. Well, that's interesting, something we should pay attention to, but not feel guilty about.

COHEN: Guilt is bad.

ZAHN: Guilt is bad in any part of our lives. Thanks.

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