Late weaning and maternal closeness, associated with advanced motor and visual maturation, reinforce autonomy in healthy, 2-year-old children

José Villar, Roseline Ochieng, Eleonora Staines-Urias, Michelle Fernandes, Marc Ratcliff, Manorama Purwar, Fernando Barros, Bernardo Horta, Leila Cheikh Ismail, Elaine Albernaz, Naina Kunnawar, Sophie Temple, Francesca Giuliani, Tamsin Sandells, Maria Carvalho, Eric Ohuma, Yasmin Jaffer, J. Alison Noble, Michael Gravett, Ruyan PangAnn Lambert, Enrico Bertino, Paola Di Nicola, Aris Papageorghiou, Alan Stein, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Stephen Kennedy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We studied neurodevelopmental outcomes and behaviours in healthy 2-year old children (N = 1306) from Brazil, India, Italy, Kenya and the UK participating in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project. There was a positive independent relationship of duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and age at weaning with gross motor development, vision and autonomic physical activities, most evident if children were exclusively breastfed for ≥7 months or weaned at ≥7 months. There was no association with cognition, language or behaviour. Children exclusively breastfed from birth to <5 months or weaned at >6 months had, in a dose-effect pattern, adjusting for confounding factors, higher scores for “emotional reactivity”. The positive effect of EBF and age at weaning on gross motor, running and climbing scores was strongest among children with the highest scores in maternal closeness proxy indicators. EBF, late weaning and maternal closeness, associated with advanced motor and vision maturation, independently influence autonomous behaviours in healthy children.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5251
JournalScientific Reports
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

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