Breast Feeding, Infant | featured news

Erin Carroll planned to breast-feed both her newborn sons. But like many women with the best intentions, it didn't work out. A new government study finds only a third of new moms achieve their goal of exclusively breast-feeding for three months.

Evidence for the long-term benefits of breast-feeding — well beyond infancy — continue to grow. In the latest analysis of the academic performance of children who were breast- or bottle-fed, researchers found that breast-fed babies scored higher on tests of math, reading and writing skills at 10 years old, compared with those who were bottle-fed as babies.