Infant Feeding and Cognition: Integrating a Developmental Perspective

—For a number of years, many professional organizations have promoted breastfeeding because of its documented health benefits. On the basis of recent evidence, highly influential organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have also added cognitive enhancement to the list of benefits derived from breastfeeding. However, several unresolved issues related to the relevant research make advocacy of breastfeeding for cognitive benefits appear premature. The purpose of this article was to call for a stronger developmental perspective in considering research on infant feeding practices and cognition. Such a perspective would include precisely defining infant feeding practices, establishing the mechanisms of feeding effect on cognition, and addressing the stability of infants’ cognitive test scores, as well as the clinical significance of test score differences among various feeding groups. Also essential is improving the quality of data, including using more sensitive measures of cognition, integrating laboratory measures, and analyzing for individual differences.