Parents, it’s time to focus up — your child’s attention span may depend on it.
ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders nationwide, affecting roughly 15.5 million American adults and an estimated 7 million children.
Now, new research suggests that sticking with a widely recommended parenting habit during a baby’s first six months of life could help reduce their risk of developing ADHD symptoms later in childhood.
“In our society, heredity is likely the strongest risk factor for ADHD,” Berit Skretting Solberg, psychiatrist and researcher at the University of Bergen in Norway and senior author of the study, said in a press release.
“However, since ADHD — like other neurodevelopmental disorders — is influenced by multiple factors, our study suggests that the extent of breastfeeding may also help protect against the development of ADHD symptoms in young children.”
Breast milk is often described as the gold standard for infant nutrition, delivering the perfect mix of proteins, fats, sugars and vitamins that a baby needs as they grow and develop.
It’s also packed with brain-friendly compounds, including long-chain fatty acids, amino acids, antibodies and beneficial bacteria that support early development.
To explore whether breastfeeding may have any link to ADHD, Solberg and her colleagues analyzed data from 37,600 families in Norway.
Six months after birth, mothers filled out questionnaires reporting how long they exclusively breastfed, how long they partially breastfed and when they introduced other liquids or solid foods.
“We found that the longer a child was exclusively breastfed (up to 6 months), the lower the level of ADHD symptoms at ages 3, 5 and 8 years,” Solberg said.
ADHD — short for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder — is marked by ongoing patterns of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior that can interfere with school, relationships and everyday life.
In children, it may show up as frequent daydreaming, losing or forgetting items, fidgeting, careless mistakes, impulsive decisions, impatience, excessive talking, difficulty taking turns, trouble following instructions and challenges getting along with others.
The researchers found the association between breastfeeding and lower ADHD symptoms in both boys and girls, with the strongest effects seen at ages 3 and 5.
While any breastfeeding showed some link, the effect grew stronger with longer and more exclusive breastfeeding — peaking at up to six months.
Scientists are still working to understand why the two may be connected.
In general, ADHD isn’t believed to stem from a single cause, but rather a mix of genetics, brain development and environmental factors.
Past research has shown that mothers with ADHD tend to breastfeed for shorter periods and are more likely to have children with ADHD symptoms. At the same time, children with ADHD traits may also be more difficult to breastfeed.
“This may partly explain the relationship between lower breastfeeding and increased ADHD symptoms in children,” Solberg said.
To dig deeper, the researchers adjusted for genetic risk factors for ADHD as well as sociodemographic variables. They also ran sibling comparisons within the same families to account for household influences.
“Even after these adjustments, there was a clear but moderate protective effect of the duration of exclusive breastfeeding on later ADHD symptoms,” Solberg said.
Still, the authors cautioned that their findings aren’t definitive.
The study population wasn’t fully representative of Norway as a whole, with participants tending to be more educated and more likely to breastfeed — and to do so longer — than the general population.
Because of that, Solberg said the protective effect could be even stronger in populations where breastfeeding rates are lower.
“As with other observational studies, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about causality,” she said, calling for further research into the relationship between breastfeeding and ADHD.
In the US, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend exclusive breastfeeding for about the first six months of life when possible.
Beyond nutrition, breastfeeding is also linked to immune system benefits and a lower risk of certain short- and long-term health issues for both babies and mothers.
National data shows that about 84% of new mothers in the U.S. start breastfeeding after birth. But those numbers drop off fairly quickly over time, with 47% exclusively breastfeeding at three months and just 27% still doing so at six months postpartum.
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