How can you make a population smarter? Last week, research in the American journal JAMA Pediatrics showed that mothers' milk increases a child's intelligence. The study, from Boston Children's Hospital, found that breastfeeding for six months to a year was associated with better receptive language skills at three years and higher verbal and non-verbal intelligence scores at seven. A year of breastfeeding as a baby gave a seven-year-old 4.2 more IQ points – 0.35 of a point for each month it received its mother's milk.
