Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born preterm

Lucas A, Morley R

1992

England

300 preterm children were assessed at age 7.5 to 8 years of age. All of them had been fed by tube during the first weeks following birth. An 8.3 point advantage in IQ was observed among those fed with mother's milk. There was a dose response relation between the proportion of mother's milk in the diet and subsequent IQ. Children whose mothers chose to provide milk but failed to do so had the same IQ as those whose mothers elected not to provide breast milk.

These data point to a beneficial effect of human milk on neural development. Let us recall that human milk contains long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids with 20 and 22 atoms of carbon, such as DHA (C22,6,n3).