NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why Breastfed Babies Are So Smart.

Researchers at Brigham Young University examined data from 7,500 mothers and children collected from birth to four years of age. They found that two crucial parenting skills were responsible for the boost to cognition. Mothers who breastfed were more likely to:

• respond to children’s emotional cues,
• and read to children at 9 months of age.

Together these factors were enough to put children two or three months ahead when they reached four-years-old. . . .

None of this means that breastfeeding doesn’t confer other advantages, it does: for example, breast milk has considerable health benefits. The suggestion is that breastfeeding doesn’t directly affect IQ, rather it is reading to their children and the high emotional responsiveness of mothers which boosts intellectual development.