A new study has confirmed that breast milk is still the best option for your little one, reports WebMD.
In this study, researchers compared the development of 391 healthy infants fed breast milk, milk-based baby formula, or soy-based baby formula. The infants were followed for one year from birth and tested every three months.
The results showed no differences between soy formula and milk formula-fed infants on all developmental tests.
Breastfed infants, however, had an advantage over formula-fed infants in three different developmental areas:
- Mental development: Breastfed infants scored slightly higher on the Mental Development Index at 6 and 12 months compared with formula-fed infants.
- Psychomotor skills: Infants fed breast milk also had higher scores on motion skills tests at 6 months than infants fed soy formula.
- Language skills: Breastfed infants had slightly higher scores on the Preschool Language Scale-3 than milk-based formula-fed infants at 3 and 6 months.
Researchers found no differences in behavioral development, such as language and other thinking-related skills, between infants fed soy formula or milk formula during the first year of life.
“Although all three diet groups scored within the established norms in the behavioral testing, BF [breastfed] infants scored slightly better than formula-fed infants,” researcher Aline Andres, PhD, of Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center in Little Rock, Ark., and colleagues write in Pediatrics.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast milk first as the ideal source of nutrition for infants, followed by milk and soy formulas as the second and third choices, respectively.
Read More at WebMD: Soy and Cow’s Milk-Based Baby Formulas Face Off.