Researchers from the University of Oxford report that extended periods of breastfeeding are associated with stronger educational outcomes later in life and notable gains in academic achievement during adolescence. The findings appear in a magazine issue part of the Archives of Childhood Diseases within the BMJ family of publications.
The study pooled data from a large British birth cohort, following 5,000 children born between 2000 and 2002 who were part of the Millennium cohort project. The research tracked the academic performance and lifestyle factors of these children at multiple stages of growth: ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14, 17, and 22. By following the same individuals over time, the team aimed to understand how early-life experiences might echo into later schooling and outcomes.
In the cohort, about one third of the children, precisely 32.8 percent, had never been breastfed. The remainder received some breastfeeding at various intervals during infancy, while a smaller segment, 9.5 percent, experienced breastfeeding for at least 12 months. This distribution provided a diverse spectrum to examine potential associations between breastfeeding duration and later academic results.
Analytical results indicated a positive relationship between the length of breastfeeding and educational attainment. When compared with children who were never breastfed, those who received breastfeeding for longer periods tended to perform better on academic measures. Specifically, the analysis showed that children in the longer-breastfed group were about 39 percent more likely to achieve high scores on standardized assessments and around 25 percent less likely to fail an exam than their peers who were not breastfed. These differences persisted even after accounting for a range of other factors that could influence educational outcomes.
Although the study illuminates a meaningful association between breastfeeding duration and later academic success, the researchers caution that causality cannot be established from this analysis alone. The team emphasizes the need for further investigations to explore the mechanisms behind the observed relationships and to confirm the findings through additional research designs. The researchers also highlight that breastfeeding decisions are intertwined with broader social, economic, and health contexts that can influence educational trajectories. Future work may examine how maternal health, family resources, and early-life environments interact with infant feeding practices to shape school performance over time. In the interim, these results contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting potential long-term benefits of breastfeeding for child development and education. For readers seeking a fuller understanding, the study is attributed to the Oxford cohort team and reported through the Archives of Childhood Diseases in BMJ publications.