How babies are fed affects their IQ later in lifeTHURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2013 11:36 AM
As babies are too young to take an IQ test for kids, it is impossible for parents to get a sense of their children's intelligence until they are older. While infants cannot participate in a conversation or read a book, their brain is developing. What parents may not realize is that some of their actions can actually help or hurt a baby's eventual IQ.
For this reason, parents who want their babies to grow up to be intelligent and successful adults should consider the findings from the following studies:
Early weight gain linked to higher IQ
Based on the results of a 2013 study from the University of Adelaide,
size matters when it comes to babies. More specifically, the size or a baby's head and his or her weight shortly after birth could indicate a higher IQ later in life. In the study, University researchers worked with data from 13,800 children who were born full-term. Babies who put on more weight in their first four weeks were more likely to achieve high
IQ scores when they reached the age of 6. At the same time, infants with greater head circumference were found to have better IQ scores than others their age with smaller heads. "Head circumference is an indicator of brain volume, so a greater increase in head circumference in a newborn baby suggests more rapid brain growth," said Dr. Lisa Smithers of the University's School of Population Health, who was also the study's lead author. The results of this study just go to show how important it is for parents to make sure their babies are being fed properly.
Malnutrition in infancy could lead to troubling behaviors
The University of Adelaide study is not the first to investigate the connection between babies' eating habits and brain development. In 2004, the University of Southern California released research into
early malnutrition and its links to problematic behavior and lower IQ scores in childhood and adolescence. To arrive at these findings, researchers analyzed 14 years worth of nutritional, behavioral and cognitive data from a study population of 1,000 children living on the island of Mauritius, off the coast of Africa. After comparing youths who did not suffer from nutritional deficiencies to those who did, it was apparent that malnourishment was one of the causes of troubled children's issues. By the time children who grew up malnourished reached the age of 8, they had experienced a 41 percent increase in aggression. At 11 years old, the likelihood of violent and antisocial behavior rose 51 percent. These study subjects' IQs were also affected by their early malnourishment. "There's more to antisocial behavior than nutrition, but we argue that it is an important missing link," said the University's Adrian Raine, who co-authored the study. "Biology is not destiny. We can change the biological disposition to antisocial and aggressive behavior."
Feeding babies on demand could boost IQ
There have been many studies into the effects of breastfeeding on babies, but one in particular examined how feeding infants on demand could increase their intelligence later in life. The 2012 study, which was conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, found that
feeding on demand does help. Some mothers breastfeed or bottle-feed their babies on a schedule. However, the researchers' findings showed that feeding infants when they are hungry was linked to higher IQ scores during adolescence. "The difference in IQ levels of around four to five points, though statistically highly significant, would not make a child at the bottom of the class move to the top, but it would be noticeable," said Dr. Maria Iacoyou, who led the researchers from the University of Essex.
