Before Birth
Interesting facts about unborn babies.
- Older women have more chance of multiple births: Older women have higher hormone levels, so they are more likely to produce more than one egg and have twins or triplets.
- You may be able to predict gender: The Chinese Lunar Calendar crosses the month a baby was conceived with the mother’s age to predict gender, and is often correct!
- Fathers health can also influence: A Mothers health is not the only factor that poses risks to unborn babies. Dad should adopt a healthier lifestyle before conception too.
- Early developing baby is smaller than a grain of rice: At just four weeks old — in the womb — your baby is “tinier than a grain of rice,” according to Australia’s Better Health Channel.
- Babies have fingerprints: Even before they are born, babies have fingerprints from around three months in the womb.
- Babies can “see” light: Even though your baby is inside your tummy, they can open their eyes at seven months and follow light.
- Babies cry before birth: Babies develop vocal chords that are capable of crying before leaving the womb.
Newborns
Interesting facts about newborns.
- Babies like Wednesday’s: The day on which most babies are born is Wednesday. But for over 15 years, it was Tuesday.
- “First” babies are smaller: The first child born to parents is usually smaller in size than babies born later.
- More babies are born prematurely: Since 1990, preterm babies are born much more frequently. Roughly half a million each year.
- Peak crying times: You may feel like babies cry nonstop, but in fact, late afternoon and early evening are the most common times for babies to cry.
- Babies recognize mum first: Babies begin to recognize their mother’s voice when inside the womb, and they usually recognize their mother’s face earlier than other people.
- They can protect themselves against choking: Called a ‘protective reflex’, newborn babies’ tongues automatically push out foreign objects to keep them from choking.
- Most babies are born with blue eyes: Eventual eye color develops later, most babies are indeed born with blue eyes.
- Newborns recognize the smell of breastmilk: You may notice that a newborn will get fussy or become more alert when his breastfeeding mother comes into the room. That’s because he can smell her milk.
- Babies cry for two hours a day: Most babies reach a peak in overall crying time around 6 weeks old, and then settle down dramatically after 3 months.
- Heart rate and breathing rate is much faster than adults: Babies’ hearts beat at twice the rate of adults, and they breathe at least twice as fast, too.
Eating and Sleeping
Facts about how much babies eat and sleep.
- Babies develop flat heads after sleeping: Sometimes a baby will develop a flat head after sleeping on his back. You can correct this by putting your baby on his stomach when he’s awake and getting him to look to the side when he’s lying down watching you.
- 5 hours is a full night’s sleep for new babies: While babies ‘nap’ a lot, a 5-hour ‘proper’ rest is usually sufficient.
- Babies can be breast fed until four months: Babies can receive all the nutrition they need to grow normally from breast milk up until four months of age.
- Babies should sleep on their backs even when sick: Some parents fear that baby will choke if vomitting while sleeping on their back. But baby’s natural reaction is to turn its head if sick.
- Newborns sleep 16 – 17 hours a day: Although they sleep more than half the day, they actually only sleep one to two hours at a time.
- There is no set time for starting solid foods: Many babies may start responding to solid foods at 6 months, while others may not be ready until they are 2 years old.
Learning
Fact about how babies learn, recognize words and faces.
- Babies start learning language early: They start to recognize words when they’re just 10 months old.
- Babies “label” objects: Babies take the words you use when you talk about something and “label” the word to the corresponding object. It’s a natural learning process.
- Babies learn by using all of their senses: It’s important to help your baby use all of its senses — including touch and smell — when teaching them new things.
- Their brains grow faster in the first two years: The brain’s nerve endings are all linking up during this important time.
- Babies learn by watching faces: Encourage family members and friends to make eye contact with your baby, since this is a principal way of learning for them.
- Babies recognize numerics: At seven months, babies have demonstrated that they can recognize numbers!
- Babies learn from books: Reiterate familiar objects, animals, colors and sounds with your baby by using picture books.
- Babies pick up on conversation and speech rhythm: Speak clearly, make eye contact, and stress normal conversation and speech patterns and your baby will soon develop a normal speaking rhythm also.
Growth and Development
Facts to learn more about crying patterns, smiles, and when to expect dribble.
- Crying patterns: Some doctors and scientists believe that babies who received more comfort when they cried were less likely to cry when they grew older.
- Smiles start at 6-12 weeks: Many babies start smiling before 12 weeks, but this is the general marker for normal development.
- Newborns don’t have the bridge of the nose: This may make it easier for them to be delivered naturally. The bridge develops later.
- Drooling begins at 2 months: When a baby starts to put thier hands in her mouth, at around 2 months, dribbling quickly follows.
- Babies gain a lot of weight: Babies double their birth weight by 4 months and triple it after only one year!
- By 13 months, most babies should be able to say several words: Besides “mama” and “dada,” babies should have been able to pick up a couple of more words by now.
- Babies born today have life expectancy of 78.11 years: Science now says that the average life expectancy for today’s newborns is an average of 78.11 years — 80.60 years for females and 75.65 years for males.
- Cold babies do not grow as fast: Since babies can’t shiver, they use up fat to keep them warm, which can interfere with normal growth.
- Cause and effect: We know that toddlers and older babies are mischievous, but babies tend to experiment with cause and effect from just 5 months old!
Credits:thebabyhirecentre
