Infant feeding practice and childhood cognitive performance in South India.
OBJECTIVE
Several studies have suggested a beneficial effect of infant breastfeeding on childhood cognitive function. The main objective was to examine whether duration of breastfeeding and age at introduction of complementary foods are related to cognitive performance in 9- to 10-year-old school-aged children in South India.


METHODS
The authors examined 514 children from the Mysore Parthenon birth cohort for whom breastfeeding duration (six categories from <3 to > or = 18 months) and age at introduction of complementary foods (four categories from <4 to > or = 6 months) were collected at the first-, second- and third-year annual follow-up visits. Their cognitive function was assessed at a mean age of 9.7 years using three core tests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for children and additional tests measuring long-term retrieval/storage, attention and concentration, visuo-spatial and verbal abilities.


RESULTS
All the children were initially breastfed. The mode for duration of breastfeeding was 12-17 months (45.7%) and for age at introduction of complementary foods 4 months (37.1%). There were no associations between longer duration of breastfeeding, or age of introduction of complementary foods, and cognitive function at 9-10 years, either unadjusted or after adjustment for age, sex, gestation, birth size, maternal age, parity, socio-economic status, parents' attained schooling and rural/urban residence.


CONCLUSIONS
Within this cohort, in which prolonged breastfeeding was the norm (90% breastfed > or = 6 months and 65% breastfed for > or = 12 months), there was no evidence suggesting a beneficial effect of longer duration of breastfeeding on later cognitive ability.
Veena
Sargoor R
SR
Epidemiology Research Unit, Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, Karnataka, India. veenasr@gmail.com
Krishnaveni
Ghattu V
GV
Srinivasan
Krishnamachari
K
Wills
Andrew K
AK
Hill
Jacqueline C
JC
Kurpad
Anura V
AV
Muthayya
Sumithra
S
Karat
Samuel C
SC
Nalinakshi
Mahadevu
M
Fall
Caroline H D
CH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011203:Poverty; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult