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Old November 11th 07, 11:44 AM posted to misc.kids
Chookie
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Default IQ and what it means in adulthood

In article ,
Sarah Vaughan wrote:

Anyway, it would probably help if I gave the context here - the debate
was about the studies showing a correlation between breastfeeding and
increased IQ, and - if that association is real and not due to a
confounder - what it means in practice. I must say I was never terribly
impressed by the kind of numbers I was hearing - in the studies being
discussed, the average difference was seven IQ points, which just didn't
really sound like that much in practice to me.


From what I remember, all the obvious confounders were removed, and we are
left with a small but measurable difference of nearly half a standard
deviation.

No, it's not a lot, and it won't turn anyone's little Gumby into Einstein. My
suspicion is that the difference is related to the implications of BFing for
health -- infections probably do have a slight effect on brain development in
the first 6mo, and the risk of infection is lowered when a child is BF. But
it's been a while since I read about that study.

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Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
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