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Food for Thought? Breastfeeding and Child Development

Published on 18 December 2013

This Working Paper has been replaced by Breastfeeding and child development

We estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers.

We show that children who are born at the weekend or just before are less likely to be breastfed, owing to poorer breastfeeding support services at weekends. We use this variation to estimate the effect of breastfeeding on children's development for a sample of uncomplicated births from low educated mothers. We find that breastfeeding has large effects on children's cognitive development, but not on non-cognitive development or health. Regarding mechanisms, we estimate how breastfeeding affects parental investments in the child and the quality of the mother-child relationship.

Authors

Emla Fitzsimons

Emla Fitzsimons

Research Fellow University College London

Emla Fitzsimons is a Professor of Economics at the University College London Institute of Education and a Research Fellow at the IFS.

Marcos Vera Hernandez

Marcos Vera-Hernandez

Research Fellow University College London

Marcos is a Research Fellow at IFS, an Affiliate at the Rural Education Action Program and a Professor of Economics at the University College London.