A woman breastfeeds her baby in Bordeaux, southwest France April 27, 2006.

Children breast-fed as infants are less likely to wet the bed later on, researchers reported on Wednesday, probably because they have a developmental edge.

There is strong evidence that in many cases bed-wetting can "result from delayed neurodevelopment," said the report from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

"There is biological plausibility in inferring that breast-feeding protects against bed-wetting and our results show a strong statistical association" although not enough to prove a direct cause-effect.

Breast-feeding is beneficial because of the role that certain fatty acids passed onto the infant play in brain development, said the study published in the July issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The study was based on 55 children who were bed-wetters at ages 5 to 13 and 117 in the same age range who were not. Of the bed-wetters, 45 percent had been breast-fed, compared to 81 percent of those who were continent at night.

本周三，研究人员公布，婴儿期喝母乳的儿童以后不容易尿床。这可能是因为用母乳喂养的孩子发育的比较好。

此研究报告由新泽西州新不伦瑞克罗伯特·伍德·约翰逊医科学校发表。报告称，事实有力证明，在很多情况下，尿床都是"缘于神经发育迟缓"。

“说母乳喂养能够防止尿床，这在生物学上是能讲得通的，而且我们的研究结果也为此提供了有力的数据支持。”但这些数据还不足以证明二者之间存在直接的因果关系。

研究报告中说，母乳喂养是有好处的，因为婴儿在母乳中所吸收的某些脂肪酸能促进大脑发育。此研究报告发表在美国儿科研究会期刊《儿科》的7月号上。

此项研究的研究对象为55名年龄在5岁至13岁之间的尿床儿童以及117名相同年龄段的非尿床儿童。在尿床儿童中，有45％是母乳喂养的，而在那些不尿床的儿童中，该比重是81％。