4 2GM Thursday May 26 2022 | the times
News
Babies who are breastfed for longer
score better on tests of thinking skills
even as they enter secondary school,
researchers have found.
A team from the University of
Oxford said their results held true even
after taking into account mothers’
intelligence levels and families’ wealth.
They analysed data for almost 8,
babies born between 2000 and 2002,
who were followed until age 14 as part
of the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
They grouped the children according
to how long they were breastfed,
ranging from less than two months to
more than 12 months. They then looked
at the children’s scores on tests of verbal
abilities — evaluating how well they
could express themselves, vocabulary
knowledge, reading and reasoning —
at ages 5, 7, 11 and 14. They also looked
Breastfeeding boosts brain
even into secondary school
at scores on tests of spatial cognition at
ages 5, 7 and 11.
Overall, the longer a child had
breastfed, the better they performed on
the tests. The researchers said the
differences they found were “small for
an individual child but could be impor-
tant at the population level”.
“There is some debate about whether
breastfeeding a baby for a longer period
of time improves their cognitive devel-
opment,” they said.
Earlier studies had frequently over-
looked maternal intelligence as a
potentially influential variable, the
researchers said.
They added: “In the UK, women who
have more educational qualifications
and are more economically advantaged
tend to breastfeed for longer. In addi-
tion, this group tends to score more
highly on cognitive tests. These differ-
ences could explain why babies whobreastfeed for longer do better in cogni-
tive assessments.
“However, in our study, we found
that even after taking these differences
into account, children breastfed for
longer scored higher in cognitive meas-
ures up to age 14, in comparison to
children who were not breastfed.”
Dr Reneé Pereyra Elías, one of the
researchers, said “the differences
between children who were breastfed
for several months and those never
breastfed would be somewhere
between 1.5 and 4 IQ points”.
The NHS recommends that babies
breastfeed exclusively for the first six
months. It says “any amount of breast-
feeding is beneficial” and that there are
“many benefits of carrying on breast-
feeding after six months — your breast
milk protects your baby from infections
and there’s some evidence it helps them
digest solid foods”.Kat Lay Health Editor
Victims of
rape may
keep phones
Jonathan Ames Legal EditorAlleged rape victims will have their
mobile phones and other devices taken
by the police only “when absolutely
necessary”, a senior government law
officer has confirmed.
Alex Chalk QC, the solicitor-general,
said that as part of his office’s review of
evidence disclosure procedures, police
investigators will be ordered to keep de-
tailed written explanations and justifi-
cations when requiring complainants
to relinquish electronic devices.
The move came as ministers at-
tempted to counter criticism that rape
and sexual assault complainants were
subjected to a “digital strip search”.
Chalk said he was “dismayed” to dis-
cover that some police forces routinely
and automatically required complain-
ants to hand over their digital devices
for inspection.
He added that ministers were con-
cerned that an overly zealous approach
by the police was dissuading many from
reporting crimes. However, he said he
was “acutely aware” that in some cases
investigators would need to assess the
digital devices of complainants.
Unveiling the report, Chalk said that
the 2017 case of the university student
Liam Allan “was at the forefront of my
mind”. Allan was charged with rape but
the case collapsed during his trial after
it emerged that key digital evidence
that exonerated him had not been dis-
closed to his lawyers. The Metropolitan
Police and the Crown Prosecution Ser-
vice apologised for their mistakes.
Chalk said he was happy that the
instructions now being given to police
and prosecutors struck a balance
between the rights of complainants and
defendants.Ambulance trust ‘on brink of collapse’
A struggling ambulance trust could col-
lapse entirely this summer, its nursing
director has said, as another director
warned of a “catastrophic situation”
across England.
Mark Docherty, of West Midlands
Ambulance Service, said patients were
dying every day from avoidable causes
created by ambulance delays and that
he could not understand why NHS
England and the Care Quality Com-
mission were “not all over” the issue.
He told the Health Service Journal
that a rising number of people were
waiting in ambulances for 24 hours
before being admitted to hospital, and
that serious incidents had quadrupled
in the past year, largely because of
severe delays.
Documents from a quality govern-
ance meeting at the trust in March
showed another director warning that
“deaths are happening which should
not be happening” and, nationally,
patients are being let down in a “cata-
strophic situation”.
NHS data for March shows ambu-
lance trusts across England missing nu-
merous targets, including response
times to the most urgent incidents.
The document also noted more than
100 serious incidents recorded at WestMidlands Ambulance Service relating
to patient deaths, where the service has
been unable to respond because its am-
bulances are held outside hospitals.
Docherty predicted the service
would collapse on about August 17. “I’ve
been asked how I can be so specific,” he
said, “but that date is when a third of
our resource [will be] lost to delays, and
that will mean we just can’t respond.”
A health service spokesman said:
“The NHS has been working hard to re-
duce ambulance delays and £150 mil-
lion of additional system funding has
been allocated for ambulance service
pressures in 2022-23.”Memorial for Turing
King’s College, Cambridge, hopes
to build a 12ft, steel memorial to
Alan Turing, its former student.
The college has submitted plans,
by Sir Antony Gormley, to the
council. An initial plan was halted
after objections that it harmed the
view. The Bletchley Park
codebreaker died aged 41 in an
apparent suicide in 1954 after his
prosecution for homosexual acts.Prizes for practical cats
Jasper and Willow, a feline
brother and sister who comfort
those receiving end-of-life care,
and Chicken, a companion to a
young boy with autism, are
among the animals nominated for
this year’s National Cat Awards.
The awards are organised by the
Cats Protection charity and
judged by celebrities. Winners
will be announced in August.Cream tea blunder
Waitrose has apologised after a
poster in Cornwall showed a
scone with cream and jam in
what the county considers to be
the “wrong” order, with the
cream first. In Cornwall, the jam
goes on first, followed by the
cream — unlike in Devon where
it is reversed. Waitrose said it will
donate cream teas to a Cornish
foodbank to “make amends”.T rex was hot-blooded
Analysis of the leg bones of 55
groups of animals suggests that
most dinosaurs, including
Tyrannosaurus rex, were
warm-blooded. Researchers at the
California Institute of Technology
found dinosaurs’ metabolic rates
were generally high, indicating
that they burnt a lot of calories to
regulate blood temperature. The
findings are published in Nature.Consultant struck off
A retired consultant physician
has been struck off for wrongly
prescribing hormone treatments
to seven transgender patients —
one of whom was aged only nine
and another a teenager who
killed themselves a few months
later. Michael Webberley, who
spent 34 years working for the
NHS, provided puberty blockers
and cross-sex hormone therapy
via GenderGP, an online gender
clinic that he ran with his wife,
Helen Webberley, who worked
as a GP.AAAABCCE
EI IKLLNN
RRRRSSSS
S T TUUUVWSolve all five clues using each
letter underneath once only
1 Wound mark (4)2 Fictional Scottish detective (5)3 Apply full effort (6)4 Operetta composer (8)5 Dumbfounded, overwhelmed (9)Quintagram®No 1325
Solutions MindGames in Times
Cryptic clues page 10 of TimesD
ame Deborah
James has paid
a visit to the
Chelsea Flower Show
to see a rose that has
been named in her
honour (George
Sandeman writes).
The 40-year-old host
of You, Me and the Big
C podcast visited the
flower show with her
husband, Sebastien,
during a special out-
of-hours tour on
Tuesday.
The rose is white
with a light pink
centre. The mother of
two said she hoped the
flower may one day
feature in her
daughter Eloise’s
wedding bouquet.
The rose was
revealed on Monday
by World of Roses and
Harkness Rose
Company, which bred
and named the flower.
It is a floribunda,
which produces
masses of white
blooms and features a
subtle “ballet slipper
pink” centre. Each
sale of the rose willcontribute £2.50 to the
Bowelbabe Fund,
started by James. “It
meant absolutely
everything to me,” she
told the BBC.
“Flowers are a
reminder of our
future. We plant the
seed not knowing
what we might see
grow. Being around
nature gives us a lift
and it is a reminder
that life continues to
blossom, even in some
of the hardest places,
and brings a smile to
all of our faces, even in
the hardest of times —
particularly mine.”
This month she said
she was being given
hospice-at-home care
after having bowel
cancer diagnosed six
years ago. She has
raised more than
£6.5 million for the
Bowelbabe Fund
having set a target of
£250,000.
The Duke of
Cambridge invested
her with a damehood
at her home on May
13.Dame Deborah sees
her rose at Chelsea
Dame Deborah James, right, with the BBC presenter Sophie Raworth. A rose has been named in her honour