Babies are amazing human beings. In their first years of life, they develop with incredible speed, acquiring lifelong skills.
But despite being so small, they have some surprises and special features in this first stage. We share nine interesting, cute and fun facts about newborn babies .
At first they only see “black and white”
When born, the baby cannot differentiate the range of colors that we adults see. Opening his eyes for the first time outside the womb, he finds himself in a nebula of gray-scale images , so one of the first things that catches his interest is the black and white patterns.
It will be up to two months when all the receptors of the eye sensitive to color are fully operational and can begin to distinguish colors more clearly: first red, then green, to later distinguish blue and yellow around three months.
They recognize mom by the smell
Another curiosity related to the five senses is that babies at birth are guided by smell, which is one of the most developed senses during their first months of life. Thanks to him, they can identify their mothers even before they can distinguish them with their eyes .
It is said that their sense of smell is even more developed than adults, and it is so powerful that if you place the baby on its mother’s chest as soon as it is born, it is capable of crawling to the breast to feed itself, by pure instinct.
They get excited with the voice of their mothers
A curiosity about babies that we find very tender and emotional is the power that mom’s voice has on them. Some studies have found, for example, that listening to the mother’s voice raises oxytocin levels in babies .
In addition, the mother’s voice is, together with the mother’s touch and smell, the most effective combination to calm and comfort the baby. In fact, we know that when a mother talks or sings to her premature baby while undergoing some medical intervention, her expression of pain decreases.
They prefer sweet flavors
Speaking of the senses, we have a fun curiosity about them: babies prefer sweet flavors during their first months of life, such as breast milk. Although it is the least developed sense at birth, it has been found that it does not like bitter or acid tastes.
They don’t know day from night
Surely more than one father or mother has wondered why their baby does not sleep even though it is already dark. The reason is very simple: babies do not distinguish day from night during their first months of life , just as when they were in the womb.
It is between 3 and 6 months of age , when they acquire their circadian rhythm and can begin to differentiate day from night, so before that age their sleep routine will not have a set pattern.
They have cold (and sometimes blue) hands and feet
The circulation of newborns is still immature, especially the capillaries, which are the smallest blood vessels and those of those more distant areas, such as hands and feet.
Because of this, newborns’ hands and feet tend to be cooler than the rest of their body and sometimes bluish. If we increase their temperature or rub their hands or feet a little, that color will disappear.
They can walk”
Or at least pretend they do, thanks to the self-walking reflex, one of several reflexes babies are born with. In this particular reflex, if we hold the baby under the arms, and place him on a hard surface, as soon as his foot touches the ground and we push him a little, he will lift his foot, bending his knee and taking a step forward .
They are able to support their own weight
It sounds impressive, but in reality it is another of the reflexes that babies are born with: the palmar pressure reflex, the one with which they hold your finger tightly when they bring it closer to their little hand .
They press with such force that we could lift them to their feet without letting them go and they are also capable of supporting their own weight suspended in the air for seconds .
Crying is his way of communicating everything
Finally, a fact that is perhaps quite well known but is always worth remembering: crying is the way in which babies communicate to us everything that they need or that bothers them. Basically, it is your first language and therefore it is important to never ignore it.
Cover photo | Tim Bish on Unsplash
