A child’s mental ability gets affected by breastfeeding and that too through secondary school, the most comprehensive British study of breastfeeding stated.

Children who were put on bottle from birth performed lower as compared to children who were breastfed exclusively, as stated by the study of more than 10,000 children from the Bristol area.

Children were paired up by researchers at Oxford University and the Institute for Social and Economic Research, ISER, in Essex and no differences between these kids were made when it came to maternal IQ and family circumstances.

The difference made between these kids was breastfeeding and bottle feeding. To measure the difference between breastfeeding these pairs were compared.

Maria Iacovou, a research fellow at the ISER, said, “Breastfed babies had IQs that were on average between three and five points higher. We wouldn't have been surprised if the effect faded with time, but it didn't.”

Conclusions were made based on about 14,000 women who between 1991 and 1992 gave birth to children. Children were also assessed apart from mothers based on their kind of feed whether it was bottle or breast milk.