- Learning to talk begins in the womb
As your baby grows, your baby could hear sounds from about 22 weeks of pregnancy and babies have been shown to respond to voices and noise from around 25 weeks. So, although she won’t say her first word until she’s about a year old. She’s learning about language right from the start.
- The first poop doesn’t stink
Meconium is the name given to the first stool. It’s a black, tar-like texture made up of materials ingested during the time in the uterus: intestinal epithelial cells, lanugo, mucus, amniotic fluid, bile and water. As soon as you start feeding your baby, bacteria will start colonizing their intestines. This is when bowel movements become green, yellow or brown and start to give our odour.
- Babies are born with the ability to swim?
Although not 100% accurate your baby has a natural reflex to hold her breath and open her eyes when he’s under water. Researchers studying the dive reflex in babies have found that none of them inhaled water or choked when they were under water.
- Newborns are short sighted
You baby sees things best from 20 – 30 cm away. The perfect distance for scanning mummy’s face while feeding. Everything else closer or beyond this distance is a blur of light, shape and movement.
- Stomachs are surprisingly tiny
A newborn’s stomach is only the size of a grape, this explains why mothers colostrum is measured in teaspoons, they often wonder if that can really be enough for their babies. The short answer is yes, that colostrum is all the nutrition your baby requires.
- It’s normal for newborns to lose weight
It is common for newborns to lose some weight on the first 4-7 days of life. a 5-10% weight loss is considered normal for breastfed babies. While a 5% weight loss is considered normal for a formula fed newborn. Most babies should regain their birth weight by the time they’re about two weeks old. And double their birth rate by five months.
- Babies are born with 94 more bones than a full grown adult!
Where do they go? And why aren’t they fused together at birth? Well most bones are located in the newborn’s skull. It allows her to squeeze through mother birth canal when she’s born.
- Babies lose the hair they are born with.
By the time four months all the hair baby was born with have been replaced with a while head of hair!
- Their taste buds are limited to sweet and sour.
Babies start tasting salt around the age of four months.
- New parent sleep up to 58% less of the recommended eight hours a night
Study claims in the first 12 months of a child’s life a parent would lose the equivalent to 50 nights of sleep.
(Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash)