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Business Standard : Bones of children born in the most recent century reach full maturity earlier than it used to before, a new study has found. Today's children have bones that reach full maturity earlier - by nearly 10 months in girls and nearly seven months in boys, the study suggests. "Our findings show there is a "new normal" for timing when kids' skeletons will reach full maturity," said Dana Duren, lead author of the research. As part of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, the research team, led by Duren, assessed the radiographs of more than 1,000 children born between 1915 and 2006. The team evaluated radiographs of the bones in the hands and wrists to determine the precise timing of the beginning and end of a developmental process called epiphyseal fusion. "We focused on epiphyseal fusion because it signals the end of the growth of the bone. It begins when the growth plate, whi...

Breastfeeding is majorly correlated with positive health outcomes in infants, but it might not be the causal mechanism. Researchers from the University at Buffalo found that the benefits of breastfeeding, reported in the vast majority of prior research, could be influenced by the mother's characteristics, such as what they know about health and nutrition. "It's important to understand that we are not trying to imply that just intending to breastfeed is what's leading to these health outcomes," said Jessica Su, co-author of the study. "What we found is that intending mothers had more information about nutrition and diet; they more frequently consulted their physicians; and had better access to information related to infant health than those moms who did not intend to breastfeed." This access to health care is an important policy focus. By channelising so much energy into getting moms to breastfeed, we miss something very important: that...