The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends exclusively breastfeeding your baby for the first six months of life.
Breastfeeding for six months or longer is preferable to shorter breastfeeding or formula feeding because it is independently and longitudinally associated with better development,
cognition, educational attainment and mental health throughout childhood and into adolescence.
Mothers should be encouraged, enabled and supported to continue breastfeeding for six months and longer in order to promote the optimum developmental health and well-being of your infants into childhood and adolescence.
In the same time many health concerns can impact speech development especially during the puriod to 5 years. How significant are factors such as reflex, oral sensitivity, feeding difficulties, bruxism, drooling and pre mature birth on speech development on this age ?
The results of statistical analysis of an inclusive retrospective study comparing these factors and speech development for 142 children seen over a 14 months period in a community base therapy clinic. There was a strong co occurence between feeding difficulties and speech difficulties and more than 50% of childen with feeding problem had speech difficulties as show in the poster below.
Many research support that breastfeeding related speech development because breastfeeding
- Promotes normal oral-facial development
- Improves coordination of the mouth, lips, tongue and jaw muscles
Since breastfeeding promotes normal development of the face and mouth, it would make sense that breastfeeding would enhance speech development and help to prevent speech problems. The research on this topic is mixed. Several studies have shown breastfeeding to enhance speech development and speech clarity, and others have shown no speech differences between breastfeeding and bottle-feeding.
Why Breastfeeding is importance ?
Referent : Beckman Oral Motor
The Long-Term Effects
of Breastfeeding on Development
Breastfeeding for a longer duration appears to have significant benefits for the development, cognitive IQ, educational attainment and mental health of the child into adolescence. A longer duration of breastfeeding was positively associated with the developmental, cognitive, educational and psychological health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.
November 12, 2014
Links to various journal articles
Early weaning: implications to oral motor development
Having in mind that early weaning brings consequences to oral motor development, occlusion, breathing, and to children's oral motor aspects, we have to emphasize the importance of breastfeeding. The encouragement of this practice and the proper sucking pattern is the basis for the prevention of speech-language disorders, as far as the oral motor system is concerned.
November 10, 2014
Feeding Therapy will work on >>>
Since breastfeeding promotes normal development of the face and mouth, it would make sense that breastfeeding would enhance speech development and help to prevent speech problems. The research on this topic is mixed. Several studies have shown breastfeeding to enhance speech development and speech clarity, and others have shown no speech differences between breastfeeding and bottle-feeding.
Last Updated : 26 Dec. 2014