FRIDAY, July 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Exclusive breastfeeding may protect against attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood, according to a study published online June 19 in Biological Psychiatry.
Berit Skretting Solberg, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Bergen in Norway, and colleagues prospectively examined the relationship between full (exclusive or predominant) breastfeeding duration and ADHD symptoms in children. The analysis included 37,643 children born between 1999 and 2009 (18,349 mother-father-child units) participating in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.
The researchers found that full breastfeeding per month was significantly associated with lower ADHD symptoms at all ages (adjusted Bage3 = −0.08; Bage5 = −0.07; Bage8 = −0.06). Similar results were seen when modeling breastfeeding as a categorical variable consisting of both full and partial breastfeeding. The results were supported by inverse probability weighting, accounting for loss to follow-up, and sibling analyses with discordant breastfeeding exposures.
"We found that the longer a child was exclusively breastfed (up to six months), the lower the level of ADHD symptoms at ages 3, 5, and 8 years," Solberg said in a statement.
Three authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
