CHILDREN who were breastfed or fed a mixture of formula and breastmilk for the first six to eight weeks of life are less likely to experience special educational needs or learning disabilities, a Scottish study has found.

Led by the University of Glasgow and published in the Plos Medicine journal, the research studied data from 190,000 children to understand the impact of early life feeding on later development.

Researchers looked at the health and educational data for 191,745 children born in Scotland from 2004 and cross-referenced the data with children attending mainstream or special education schools between 2009 and 2013.

Of those included in the study, 66.2% of children were formula-fed, 25.3% were breastfed, and only 8.5% were mixed-fed for the first six to eight weeks.

Overall, 12.1% of children in the study had a special educational need.

The study found that those exclusively breastfed were 20% less likely to have learning difficulties.

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Exclusively breastfed children were also found to be less likely to have emotional or behavioural difficulties (around 20% less likely) and physical health conditions (around 25% less likely).

While World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance recommends that babies are breastfed for the first six months, many struggle to exclusively breastfeed for this long.

However, this study provides evidence that a shorter duration of non-exclusive breastfeeding may still be beneficial, as those with early life mixed feeding were also found to be 10% less likely to have learning difficulties.

Dr Michael Fleming, who led the study at the University of Glasgow’s School of Health and Wellbeing, said: “We know that many women struggle to exclusively breastfeed for the full six months recommended by the WHO, however our study provides evidence that a shorter duration of non-exclusive breastfeeding could nonetheless be beneficial with regards to a child’s learning development.

“The results of this study suggest that feeding method in infancy could be a modifiable risk factor for the causes of special educational need, which in turn has the potential to help reduce the burden for affected children, their families and wider society.”

Children with special educational needs on average experience lower educational attainment, higher rates of school absenteeism and exclusion, and higher rates of bullying and maltreatment, which can all further impact on their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

However, honorary consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Dr Danya Glaser warned that correlation is not necessarily causation, as a number of other factors can lead to learning difficulties in children.

Commenting on the study, Glaser, who is also a visiting professor from UCL said: “Correlations are not causal. There could be factors other than no breast feeding which are associated with special educational needs, such as low socio-economic status.

“There is also a correlation between no breast feeding and low socio-economic status. This study has not adequately controlled for this.”