Babies Over 6 Months of Breastfeeding Significantly Reduce Risk of Developmental Delays
Mar 25, 2025
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends continuing breastfeeding with complete breastfeeding for six months after birth and health supplements for up to two years after that.
Dr. Inval Goldstein's research team at the KI Institute in Israel, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Network Open) on the 25th, analyzed breastfeeding records and child development test data of more than 570,000 children. We analyzed the association between breastfeeding and developmental indicators using the breastfeeding status and developmental test results of 575,532 healthy babies (51.2%) born at 35 weeks or more of pregnancy between January 2014 and December 2020.
The analysis showed that children who ate only breast milk for at least 6 months had 27% lower risk of delay in verbal and social development indicators and motor development indicators than those with less than 6 months of breastfeeding, and 14% lower than children with both breast milk and formula. In addition, a comparison of 37,704 pairs of siblings with differences in breastfeeding showed that children who had breastfeeding for at least six months had 27% less risk of diagnosing neurodevelopmental disorders than siblings or less than six months of lactation, and 9% less risk of delay in developmental indicators.
The research team said the study shows that it is associated with delays in the development of full or long-term breastfeeding or a reduced risk of speech and social development disorders. In addition, despite the WHO's strong support for breastfeeding, there is still a gap from the realistic situation, adding that employment policies to support breastfeeding are important.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
