>>The authors found that children with more than 4 otitis (AOM) episodes
before the age of 3 years performed less well in reading comprehension
than children with fewer episodes.  Early AOM was associated with
impaired reading comprehension test scores.<<

This is a very interesting finding to me personally.  My son was BF for eighteen months, and he did not have ear infections until he got to be older, spending alot of time in swimming pools.  In 4th grade, while he showed early advanced comprehension of verbally presented materials, his reading comprehension was way below grade level.   All through pre-school and the early grades teachers kept saying he had a hearing problem, and I kept getting his hearing tested, which always showed him to have normal hearing ranges.  Other testing revealed that he had some level of learning disability, despite otherwise being "gifted."   Looking back, he probably had some low level of ADD as well, though who knows if the learning disability caused the ADD,  or vice versa.

He has had diminished hearing for a few years, in one ear, and we now find he has some type of growth behind the eardrum.  This article makes me wonder if it has been there all along, causing problems.

Chanita, San Francisco