Breastfeeding 'makes for well-adjusted kids'

London, Mar 28 (ANI): Traditional parenting methods such as breastfeeding, discipline are likely to bring up well adjusted kids, say researchers.

In the study involving 1,136 mothers, the researchers found that breastfeeding is associated with more positive parenting practices that can continue beyond infancy.

According to the Institute of Education in London, breastfeeding for at least six months not only helps improve mother-child relationships, it also boost kids' health and educational development.

While studying mothers reading a storybook to their one-year-old children, lead researcher Dr Leslie Gutman found that those who breastfed made more effort to engage their infants in the book than mothers who bottle-fed.

Moreover, they appeared to have a warmer relationship with their babies.

Low-income mothers who bottle-fed their babies tended to communicate with them much less.

Many mothers give up breastfeeding because they do not feel supported enough or they return to work.

"Breastfeeding is a time-consuming activity and mothers can be tempted to put their babies on the bottle earlier if they feel they have to return to work for financial reasons," the Telegraph quoted Gutman as saying.

"Mothers are given information leaflets in hospitals about breastfeeding but we may need more than this. Another option is workplace nurseries where mothers could go and feed their babies during the day," Gutman added.

Another experiment showed over the period of four years mothers who had been on a low income when their child was one, but had breastfed for more than six months, had a higher quality of interaction with their five-year-old than other mothers. (ANI)