by Stacey

A new study released earlier this month shows that breastfeeding can raise intelligence by an average of nearly seven IQ points if the child has a particular version of a gene called FADS2. Thanks to this article in Slate for the tip. The study involved more than 3,000 children in Britain and New Zealand.

“There has been some criticism of earlier studies about breastfeeding and IQ that they didn’t control for socioeconomic status, or the mother’s IQ or other factors, but our findings take an end-run around those arguments by showing the physiological mechanism that accounts for the difference,” said Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.

“The argument about intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century,” Moffitt said. “We’re finding that nature and nurture work together.”

Ninety percent of the children in the two study groups had at least one copy of the “C” version of FADS2, which yielded higher IQ if they were breast-fed. The other 10 percent, with only the “G” versions of the gene, showed no IQ advantage or disadvantage from breastfeeding.

The researchers focused on the gene because it produces an enzyme that helps convert dietary fatty acids into polyunsaturated fatty acids (DHA and AA) that have been been shown to accumulate in the human brain during the first months after birth.

Since the first findings about breastfeeding and IQ appeared a decade ago, many formula makers have added DHA and AA fatty acids to their products. The children in these studies however were born in 1972-73 in New Zealand and 1994-95 in England, before fatty acid supplementation in formula began.

It isn’t known for sure whether such supplementation has made a difference in humans, the release says, but lab studies in which rodents and primates were fed supplemental fatty acids have shown increased brain DHA concentrations and enhanced abilities in tests of learning, memory and problem-solving.

I could sit here and feel satisfied with a 90 percent chance of certainty that my breastfed kids will be brighter than they otherwise would have been, but frankly I’m too busy wallowing in self-pity. My mother didn’t breastfeed me. It was out of fashion at the time and she did what the doctors told her to do. I don’t blame her.

But think about it. With that boost, I could have been seven points smarter than I am! Seven points. Maybe I would be better at remembering people’s names after they introduce themselves to me. Or maybe my head wouldn’t spin quite as much when confronted with algebraic conundrums. Heck, I might even understand things like how batteries can make things go.

It’s sad really. I’m just glad I’ll be able to provide a better life for my kids. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to think?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 8:58 am and is filed under Education, Family, Child Development, Breastfeeding, Brain Development, Babies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.