Abstract
Cognitive disorders are increasing in prevalence. Nutritional or metabolic stressors during early life, and female sex, are predisposing conditions towards the development of cognitive diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Though there is evidence that breastfeeding may play a beneficial role in children’s neurocognitive development, the literature remains controversial. In this study we aimed at assessing the association between exclusive breastfeeding and children’s cognitive development from six months to five years of age, addressing sex differences. In 80 mother-child pairs from the Pisa birth cohort (PISAC), we measured cognitive development in groups of children of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 60 months by Griffiths Mental Development Scales, parents’ intelligence quotient (IQ) by Raven’s progressive matrices, and maternal and infants’ anthropometric parameters. We found that exclusive breastfeeding was associated with higher hearing-language development in five years old girls, independent of maternal IQ, age and BMI (body mass index). Exclusive breastfeeding in the first three months of life seemed sufficient to establish this positive relationship. In conclusion, our data indicate that exclusive breastfeeding is a positive predictor of cognitive development in preschool-age girls, paving the way for the implementation of sex-specific cognitive disease risk detection and prevention strategies from early life. Further studies are warranted to explore causality and longer term effects.
Highlights
Exposure to metabolic, stress and nutritional factors during early life can shape neuronal development and brain function in later life
Exclusive formula milk feeding from birth to weaning occurred in 35% (n = 14), while 27% (n = 11) of the infants were started on exclusive formula feeding at the age of three months
In the fully adjusted analysis, we found that exclusive breastfeeding was still related to higher hearing and language scores in five years old girls, independent of maternal pregravidic and gravidic
Summary
Stress and nutritional factors during early life can shape neuronal development and brain function in later life. Among these factors, early feeding, in particular lactation, has raised research interest because the developing brain is greatly susceptible to postnatal nutritional deficits [1,2]. Breastfeeding was shown to be protective against later development of obesity and metabolic diseases in offspring when compared to formula feeding [3,4,5]. Several studies report positive associations between breastfeeding duration and exclusivity and cognitive and school achievements during childhood [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Breastfeeding can be Nutrients 2020, 12, 2320; doi:10.3390/nu12082320 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients
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