13 Remarkable Facts About Newborn Babies
In this article, we’ll look at some remarkable facts about newborn babies and dispel some myths about child development. After reading this, you will be even more fascinated by your baby than you were before.
When you first embark on the path of motherhood, you will discover a whole world of new experiences, all of which you will learn to appreciate along the way.
If you are already a mother of several children, you will know that they all develop and behave differently.
The Most Remarkable Facts About Newborn Babies
1. Cartilage Formation
When they are born, children have cartilage that later develops into kneecaps. This firm but flexible connective tissue is very important when the child learns to move around six months of age.
2. High contrast image
Newborn babies can only focus their vision at a distance of 20 to 25 cm from their face. The images they can best see are those in high contrast, black and white. The cells in their eyes are not yet able to distinguish colors.
3. Birth weight
Boys normally weigh more than girls at birth. The average weight of a boy is between 2.5 and 4.3 kg. Girls, on the other hand, weigh on average between 2.4 and 4.2 kg at birth.
4. Number of bones
When babies are born, their skeleton is not fully formed. At birth, babies have 300 bones. Over time, some of these bones will grow together to form more complex structures. By the time we are adults, we still have 206 bones in our body.
5. Taste sense
A newborn baby has more than 10,000 taste buds on its tongue. This is much more than adults. The extra taste buds will disappear by the time they mature.
6. Sleep Routines
In total, a newborn baby needs to sleep about 15 to 17 hours a day. Unlike adults, babies sleep for short periods of 2 to 4 hours in the first few weeks. Later, their sleep patterns will slowly begin to stabilize.
7. Heart rate
Another interesting fact about newborn babies is that their heartbeat is much faster than you think. A baby’s heart beats 130 to 160 times per minute.
That’s almost twice as fast as an adult’s heart rate.
8. Hearing
Babies are born with fairly well-developed hearing. They are therefore immediately able to recognize where a sound or voice comes from. This ability is already active in the brain from the first ten minutes of life.
9. Breathe and swallow
Unlike adults, babies are able to perform two very important actions at the same time, which helps them with feeding: breathing and swallowing. However, this ability disappears after the age of 7 months.
10. Hair Color and Texture
The hair your baby is born with may be different in color and texture than the hair they will have later in life. Hair can fall out in the first few weeks and will grow back during their first year. However, the color, thickness and texture of this hair can be different.
11. Reflexes
Reflexes are automatic responses of the body to external stimuli. Newborn babies have many. A baby is born with a set of 70 primitive reflexes, which disappear as they get older.
12. Exploring the World
Little ones explore their environment with their sense of touch. The most sensitive part of their body is their mouth. That’s why they put everything in there.
13. Eye Color
The last of the remarkable facts about newborn babies has to do with the color of the eyes. Many babies are born with blue eyes that later change color. This is due to the fact that melanin, the pigment that gives us our eye color, is not yet developed. A child’s final eye color will show around 6 months.
These are just a few of the many remarkable facts about newborn babies. Enjoy this stage of your child’s development and make sure you don’t miss any of these fascinating details.
