For babies, breastfeeding is still best, even if it doesn't make them smarter (though it might) There are lots of reasons why doctors encourage new mothers to breastfeed their babies. Compared with babies who get formula, babies who are breastfed are less likely to die as a result of infections, sudden infant death syndrome or any other reason. The longer a mother nurses — and the longer she does so exclusively — the bigger the benefits, studies show. Another perceived benefit of breastfeeding is the possibility that it boosts a baby’s brain. A clinical trial involving more than 16,000 infants in Belarus who were randomly assigned to get either special support for breastfeeding (based on a program from the World Health Organization and UNICEF) or a hospital’s usual care found that babies in the first group scored an average of 7.5 points higher on a verbal IQ test and 5.9 points higher on overall IQ. Teachers, apparently, could tell the difference – chi...
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