Babies who are breast-fed during the initial months are more likely to climb high up the social ladder than those who are bottle-fed, according to a research published in the issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Researchers from University of Bristol analyzed data obtained from 1,414 people who were the focus of the Boyd Orr Study of Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain (1937-1939). The data indicated that around 41 percent of those who were breast-fed were more likely to move at least one social class higher than those children who were given cow's milk.

The average prevalence of breast-feeding was 70 percent, with around same number of working class families and middle class ones breast-feeding the babies, compared to current conditions where more number of middle class families breast-feed than working class families.

The researchers added that this study was relevant to all families regardless of household income, expenditure on food, number of siblings, birth order or social class in childhood. Says Richard Martin, the lead author of the study, "We found that ever having been breast fed was positively associated with increased odds of upward social mobility in this cohort when there was little social patterning in infancy of breast feeding".

The researchers said that breast-feeding improves health, stature and IQ of the babies, which gives them the added advantage to move up the social ladder.

"One of the most consistent findings in the published literature on the long-term impact of infant-feeding is that breastfeeding is associated with improved neurocognitive development, which could influence future educational and occupational success and hence social mobility", the researchers wrote in their report.

Britain has around 76 percent of mothers who start breast-feeding but only 28 percent of them carry on till 4 months even though the government has indicated that the babies should be breast-fed until at least six months old.