Are breast-fed babies more likely to be right-handed? Study finds out
| Updated: Jan 9, 2019, 15:02 IST
As kids, we always thought that we’re supposed to use the right hand *only* for the purpose of writing, and then one fine day we met someone who wrote with their left hands and blew our collective minds! Did that sound like your childhood? Us, as well. But did you ever wonder what lead to the choice of hand for certain activities? What made left-handed people, left-handed and right-handed people, right-handed?
A few years back, there was a study that said, if you were more creatively inclined, chances were you are left-handed. If you were logic driven, you are a right-handed. Although that theory did apply true in most cases, but remained what it is, just a theory.
Turns out, there may be sure shot way to find out why a person becomes a left-handed or right-handed. The answer goes back to the time you were an infant and what kind of milk you drank.
For the purpose of the study, 60,000 pair of mother and infants was observed. They observed the prevalence of left-handers was low in breastfed infants when compared to the bottle-fed infants.
The findings that were published in ‘Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition’ said that breastfeeding for less than one month, one to six months, and more than six months, when compared to bottle feeding, was associated with a 9%, 15%and 22% decreased prevalence of non right-handedness, respectively.
One of the professors from the University thinks that breastfeeding optimises the process the brain undergoes while solidifying handedness.
However, the study doesn’t imply that breast leads to right-handedness and that handedness whether right or left is set at an early foetal state and partially determined by the genetics.
So looks like, this could be just another theory after all.
A few years back, there was a study that said, if you were more creatively inclined, chances were you are left-handed. If you were logic driven, you are a right-handed. Although that theory did apply true in most cases, but remained what it is, just a theory.
Turns out, there may be sure shot way to find out why a person becomes a left-handed or right-handed. The answer goes back to the time you were an infant and what kind of milk you drank.
For the purpose of the study, 60,000 pair of mother and infants was observed. They observed the prevalence of left-handers was low in breastfed infants when compared to the bottle-fed infants.
The findings that were published in ‘Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition’ said that breastfeeding for less than one month, one to six months, and more than six months, when compared to bottle feeding, was associated with a 9%, 15%and 22% decreased prevalence of non right-handedness, respectively.
One of the professors from the University thinks that breastfeeding optimises the process the brain undergoes while solidifying handedness.
However, the study doesn’t imply that breast leads to right-handedness and that handedness whether right or left is set at an early foetal state and partially determined by the genetics.
So looks like, this could be just another theory after all.