Breastfeeding Duration and Cognitive Development at 2 and 3 Years of Age in the EDEN Mother-Child Cohort.

Jonathan Y. Bernard (1) , Maria de Agostini (1) , Anne Forhan (1) , Toni Alfaiate (1) , Mercedes Bonet (2) , Valérie Champion (2) , Monique Kaminski (2) , Blandine de Lauzon-Guillain (1) , Marie-Aline Charles (1) , Barbara Heude (1)

1 CESP - Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations
2 UMR_S 953 - Recherche Epidémiologique en Santé Périnatale et Santé des Femmes et des Enfants

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the dose-response relationship between breastfeeding duration and cognitive development in French preschool children. STUDY DESIGN: In the French EDEN Mother-Child Cohort Study, we evaluated language ability with the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) in 1387 2-year-old children and overall development with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) in 1199 3-year-old children. Assessments were compared between breastfed and non-breastfed children and also according to breastfeeding duration in multivariable linear models, controlling for a wide range of potential confounders. We tested departure from linearity. RESULTS: After adjustments, ever-breastfed children scored 3.7 ± 1.8 (P = .038) points higher than never-breastfed children on the CDI and 6.2 ± 1.9 (P = .001) points higher on the ASQ. Among breastfed children, exclusive and any-breastfeeding durations were positively associated with both CDI and ASQ scores. The fine motor domain of ASQ was associated with any-breastfeeding duration, and the problem solving domain with exclusive-breastfeeding duration. We did not observe significant departures from linearity. No interactions were found between the child's sex, parental education or socioeconomic status, and breastfeeding duration. CONCLUSION: Longer breastfeeding duration was associated with better cognitive and motor development in 2- and 3-year-old children and a dose-response relationship was suggested.

Mots clés: Early childhood; Ages and Stages Questionnaire; MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Jonathan Y. Bernard, Maria de Agostini, Anne Forhan, Toni Alfaiate, Mercedes Bonet, et al.. Breastfeeding Duration and Cognitive Development at 2 and 3 Years of Age in the EDEN Mother-Child Cohort.. J Pediatr, 2013, 163 (1), pp.36-42.e1. ⟨10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.11.090⟩. ⟨inserm-00788598⟩