Breastfeeding 'helps behaviour'

 9 May 2011 Last updated at 21:37 ET By Jane Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News Professor Yvonne Kelly helped produce the research and told BBC Breakfast about the findings

Children who are breastfed for four months or more develop fewer behaviour problems, Oxford researchers say.

The study, involving 10,000 mothers and their babies and in journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, says that may be because of the make-up of breast milk.

Or, it says, breastfeeding may lead to better mother-baby interaction.

Breastfeeding is already associated with other health benefits for babies, including lower rates of infection and less obesity in later life.

Researchers looked at the feeding habits of 10,037 mothers and their babies involved in a large study known as the Millennium Cohort Study.

Behaviour problems

The mothers were asked to assess problems in their children by the age of five, including anxiousness and clinginess, restlessness, and lying or stealing.

Only 6% of children who were breastfed showed signs of behaviour problems, compared with 16% of children who were formula-fed.

Continue reading the main story

We just don't know whether it is because of the constituents in breast milk, or the close interaction with the mum”

End Quote The study authors Mothers who breastfeed tend to be older, better educated, and from a higher socio-economic background, which may contribute towards fewer problems in their children's behaviour.

But even after the researchers, from the Universities of Oxford, Essex, York and University College London, adjusted their figures to take that into account, they still found there was a 30% greater risk of behavioural problems among formula-fed children.

"Our results provide even more evidence for the benefits of breastfeeding," said Maria Quigley of Oxford University, who led the research.

She said breast milk contained large quantities of a particular type of fatty acid, as well as growth factors and hormones, which were important for the development of the brain and nervous system.

But mothers who breastfeed also tend to interact with their children more, which could mean the babies learn more about acceptable ways of behaving.

Breastfed children also get ill less often, which may affect their behaviour.

Close interaction

"We just don't know whether it is because of the constituents in breast milk, or the close interaction with the mum, or whether it is a knock-on effect of reduced illness in breastfed babies," said Ms Quigley.

"But it does begin to look like we can add fewer behavioural problems as another potential benefit of breastfeeding."

The Royal College of Midwives welcomed the findings and said they added to the evidence that breastfeeding was better for babies.

Janet Fyle from the RCM said it was vital women had enough help and support from midwives to help them keep breastfeeding.

But she said it was important not to over-emphasise the study's results.

"We must not send a negative message to mothers that they have failed, or make then feel guilty because they bottle-fed their babies," she said.

Yankees 5, Rangers 2: Savvy Start by Garcia Helps Yanks Fill a Void

For as much concern that exists about Phil Hughes and his missing velocity — and rightfully so — Garcia issued a reminder that succeeding without a big fastball is possible. He used to have one, back when he pitched for Seattle, where Alex Rodriguez loved playing behind him. Eleven years later, Garcia’s style has changed, but Rodriguez’s sentiment has not.

“He understands what the hitters are looking for,” said Rodriguez, who hoped he could play Sunday after a stiff right oblique muscle forced him out after six innings.

“He knows how to run away from the barrel.”

For any pitcher, keeping pitches away from the sweet spot of a bat is critical, but even more so for Garcia. If hitters can square up his mid-80s fastball, it often travels a long way. The key, as Garcia has learned, is to keep them guessing, deploying all five of his pitches to induce awkward swings and weak contact. Of his 84 pitches, Garcia fired only 33 fastballs. Of the 21 hitters he faced, just three reached base, on two singles and a walk.

“He stayed off the inside part of the plate, stayed down and away, elevated — he pitched,” Rangers Manager Ron Washington said. “You’ve got to give him credit. He always had the split, and he always had the breaking stuff. You just don’t see the power fastball. But he’s smart in the way that he uses his fastball. He’ll run it way in on you, he’ll spot it down and away.”

All of this was considered by the Yankees in the off-season, when they signed Garcia to a minor league deal. His experience pitching in the American League — most recently in Chicago, where he went 12-6 last season with a 4.64 earned run average over 157 innings for the White Sox — cast him as a favorite for one of two vacant spots in their rotation, and he seized it simply by staying healthy.

It had been 18 days since Garcia, who had pitched an inning of relief against the Boston Red Sox last Sunday, had started a game (the exhibition finale on March 29), and the miserable forecast Saturday threatened to delay him further. Rain had postponed his starting debut, originally set for April 6, and pushed it back again after Tuesday’s game was postponed. This time, Garcia viewed it as a good omen — or at least not a bad one.

“I knew I had to work quick,” Garcia said.

And that efficiency, in turn, endeared Garcia to his teammates, especially Mark Teixeira, who hit a two-run homer in the first and drove in the Yankees’ first three runs. “I love a pitcher that can go out there and throw strikes, work quickly, keep us on our toes — especially when it’s so cold and miserable out there,” Teixeira said. “By the mid-innings, you can’t feel your hands and feet.”

By the mid-innings, Garcia had fallen into a nice rhythm with his catcher, Gustavo Molina, who had been the last player on the opening day roster to appear in a game. He joked about the circumstances Saturday morning, saying, with a laugh: “You’re still in the big leagues, but, you know, every day you’re thinking, when, when? It’s been two weeks.”

Molina had known for a few days that he would start Saturday, and that Russell Martin would be rested. A bunch of Molina’s relatives were gathering back home in Venezuela to watch him catch the first start for the Yankees by a Venezuela-born pitcher, and he did not want to disappoint.

To prepare he watched videotape, did extra work with the catching instructor, Tony Pena, and caught Garcia in the bullpen. The Rangers put runners on first and second with no outs in the second, but Garcia set down the next three hitters, and six more in a row after that, before David Murphy led off the fifth with a single. Molina kept calling for off-speed pitches — changeups, sliders, slow curves — and Garcia jogged off the mound after six innings, the rain pelting his face, his day done, only because his stamina had diminished after such a long layoff.

In the clubhouse, he inhaled sharply as Adrian Beltre’s long fly with two on in the eighth curled foul, and exhaled when Mariano Rivera sealed Garcia’s first victory in pinstripes. Garcia should be stronger in his next start, though not enough to throw 95 with a devastating splitter, as he did a decade ago. Asked what Garcia’s performance signified, Manager Joe Girardi played the role of apt pupil.

“You have to locate, change speeds, move the ball around and not give up free passes,” Girardi said. “That’s the lesson to be learned.”

INSIDE PITCH

The pitching coach Larry Rothschild said Phil Hughes, who was placed on the disabled list Friday with what the Yankees called a dead arm, will begin a strenuous long-toss program Sunday that is intended to strengthen his arm and restore the velocity missing on his fastball.