23 Cute & Cuddly Facts About Babies

Premature babies, instead of full-term babies, are usually cast in movies for the role of newborn babies as they look like a newborn yet meet the minimum 15-day-old requirement for them to “work”. Twins and triplets are preferred as the babies tend to be smaller, and filming hours can be prolonged.

More than 5,000 babies across the United States were abducted by a supposed charitable organization between 1924 and 1950. The group targeted poor Southern families and developed a black market for white babies.

In 1984, a 1-year-old named Baby Fae received a heart transplant from a baboon but ended up dying 21 days later due to rejection. When the surgeon was questioned with why a baboon and not a primate more closely related to humans was selected, he said he didn’t believe in evolution.

When babies are born in Thailand, it is common for people to say the baby is ugly. There is a superstition that attractive babies will be taken by evil spirits. It is impolite to say positive things about the baby.

Babies will instinctively hold their breath underwater until the age of 6 months.

Newborn babies, when left to lie on their mother's stomach for the first hour will crawl up and attach to their mom's nipple without assistance. They are attracted to the nipple's similar smell to amniotic fluid.

Babies under the age of 1 should not eat honey because their gut is not developed enough to stop certain harmful bacteria like Clostridium botulinum from infecting the body.

Premature babies who are lightly massaged a few times a day gain weight 47% faster and thus leave hospitals sooner, saving about $3,000 in hospital costs. 8 months later these infants continued to thrive.

Newborn babies pick up their parent's accent while still in the womb. A French baby's cry tends to have a rising tone, while a German baby's cry tends to have a falling tone.

Babies learn a language by hearing it, but they must hear it spoken directly to them in person by another human being. As little as 12 hours with a human tutor produces dramatic results in babies, compared to no results even after many more hours of exposure to foreign language TV shows.