Breastfed kids more likely to recover from stuttering: study

TORONTO – New research suggests that children who are breastfed as infants are more likely to recover from persistent stuttering later in life.

Nicoline Ambrose, a speech and hearing science professor at the University of Illinois, and doctoral student Jamie Mahurin-Smith, studied 47 children who started stuttering at an early age.

In their study, published in the Journal of Communication Disorders, they found a “dose-dependent association” between breastfeeding and the likelihood that a child would recover from stuttering.

Children who were breastfed longer were more likely to recover from stuttering, according to their findings. Boys seemed to benefit the most.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), boys are twice as likely to stutter as girls. Moreover, while most children outgrow stuttering, as they get older, “the number of boys who continue to stutter is three to four times larger than the number of girls.”

“Our study adds to the evidence suggesting that human milk can exert a significant influence on neurodevelopment,” Mahurin-Smith said. “Although it’s not a magic bullet, it can make an important difference for children, even years after weaning.”

The researchers noted that income and maternal education had no influence on stuttering in their sample. They also found no evidence of underlying neurological problems that could have affected the children’s ability to breastfeed and likelihood of having speech problems later in life.

“We’ve known for years that both genetic and environmental factors contributed to stuttering, but our understanding of the specific environmental variables in play has been murky,” Mahurin-Smith said. “These findings could improve our understanding of stuttering persistence and recovery.”

The researchers said essential fatty acids found in breast milk (often lacking in formula) may explain why breastfeeding is linked to language development.

“Long-chain fatty acids found in human milk…play an important role in the development of neural tissue,” Mahurin-Smith said. “Fluent speech requires an extraordinarily complex sequence of events to unfold rapidly, and our hypothesis was that early differences in neurodevelopment could cause difficulties with speech fluency later in life.”

While the researchers say further study is needed, they believe the preliminary results suggest that breastfeeding may protect against persistent stuttering.

Health Canada recommends mothers breastfeed their babies for the first six months, and continue to breastfeed as solid foods are introduced until the baby is two years old.