In brief: School edge tied to breast-feeding
LOS ANGELES – Breast-feeding infants for at least six months appears to give children an advantage in school, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Many other studies have also found a small effect on school performance from breast-feeding. This study, however, was unique in that boys appeared to benefit the most. The researchers, from the University of Western Australia in Perth, have followed 2,868 children since the early ’90s. The study showed that, at age 10, boys who were breast-fed for six months or longer scored higher in math, reading and spelling compared with boys who were breast-fed for less than six months.
Girls who were breast-fed for at least six months showed a small improvement in reading.
The researchers controlled for other factors that could influence school performance, such as family income and education and how often the child was read to.
Herbal remedy not a cold fighter
NEW YORK – A new government-funded study of echinacea finds the popular herbal remedy doesn’t help fight the common cold.
The study of more than 700 adults and children suggests the tiniest possible benefit – about a half-day shaved off a weeklong cold and slightly milder symptoms. But that could have occurred by chance.
The new study’s results were released Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Oswald’s brother decries coffin sale
LOS ANGELES – The brother of Lee Harvey Oswald said Monday a coffin that once held the body of the presidential assassin should have been destroyed years ago rather than being auctioned off and allowed to exist as a ghoulish keepsake.
Robert L. Oswald, 76, said he didn’t know the coffin still existed until he read in a Texas newspaper this month that it had been put up for sale.
“This is not about money on my part,” Oswald said. “The coffin should have been destroyed years ago, and that is what I desire now.”
An anonymous bidder on Thursday bought the water-damaged coffin that held the body of Oswald until it was exhumed in 1981.
The bidder agreed to pay $87,469 after a spirited round of bidding that Nate D. Sanders Auctions of Santa Monica, Calif., said continued two hours past the original closing deadline.