Breastfeeding and neurological outcome at 42 months

This study investigated the effect of early feeding mode on the neurologica l condition at 42 months. For this purpose, healthy pregnant women were rec ruited in Groningen and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Children were healthy a nd born at term. At 42 months, the children were neurologically examined by means of the Touwen/Hempel technique. In addition to the clinical diagnosi s, the neurological findings were interpreted in terms of optimality. Speci al attention was paid to the quality of movements in terms of fluency. In t otal, 200 (51%) exclusively breastfed (for greater than or equal to 6 weeks ) and 194 (49%) formula-fed children were studied. Twelve (3%) 42-month-old children were considered to be neurologically mildly abnormal and 1 child was diagnosed as abnormal. No effect of the type of feeding was found on th e clinical diagnosis or the neurological optimality. After adjustments for study centre and social, obstetric, perinatal and neonatal neurological dif ferences, a beneficial effect of breastfeeding on the fluency of movements was found (odds ratio for non-optimal fluency 0.56; 95% confidence interval 0.37-0.85). The prolongation of full breastfeeding beyond 6 weeks did not influence the quality of movements. In conclusion, among Dutch preschool ch ildren, there was a small advantageous effect of full breastfeeding during the first 6 weeks of life on the fluency of movements.