25 Interesting Facts about Babies

In 2016, a baby named Lynlee in Texas was born twice. Pediatric surgeons, removed her from the womb to cut out a tumor on her spine, placed her back and several weeks later Lynlee was born healthy.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

12. Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes. The government offers expectant mothers a maternity starter kit or a cash grant. 95% opt for the kit which includes a cardboard box that doubles as a crib. It has helped Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.

13. Newborns with a vitamin D deficiency have a 44% increased risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia as adults compared to those with normal vitamin D levels. The developing fetus is totally reliant on the mother's vitamin D stores.

14. A 3-year-old girl named Emma Bazzard from Bristol was awarded for bravery after successfully calling and informing emergency services that her pregnant mother had an accident and was unconscious. Remaining calm through the whole affair she gave them the address, checked if she was breathing and where she got hurt.

15. In 2013, a baby in Poland was born with 23 times the legal blood alcohol content after his mom went on a drinking binge the night before.

Human babies are helpless because we walk upright. Walking upright requires a narrow pelvis, in which our large head/brain would get stuck during birth, so babies are born with a smaller head/brain that develops more after birth, compared to other mammals.

17. In 2005, a newborn baby girl was abandoned in a forest in Kenya for 2 days. It was rescued by a stray dog foraging for food. The dog carried the baby all the way back to her own litter of puppies.

18. In 2011, a 2-year-old boy named Paulie Hynek from Wisconsin survived after being found freezing in a snowbank overnight when he wandered outside looking for his mom. He had no heartbeat, no breathing, and no brain activity when he was found. Doctors wouldn't declare him dead until he was warmed up. He survived after his blood was warmed.

19. Babies born in international waters have their birthplace listed as "AT SEA." Those born in the air where no country claims sovereignty are listed as "IN THE AIR."

20. Deaf babies engage in "fingerbabble" that mimics the verbal babbling of their hearing peers. When raised around signing parents, they start forming repetitive, rudimentary sign shapes with their hands that resemble monosyllabic verbal babbles.

Infants are grouchy around 6-9 months because their hormones spike to pubertal levels. This period is referred to as “mini puberty.” Hormones then drop back to normal until the age pre-teens go through ‘real’ puberty.

22. “Baby Jessica” who fell down a well and was trapped for 58 hours in 1987 found out about her own ordeal and rescue after watching an episode of Rescue 911 at the age of 5.

23. In 1988, a 2.5-year-old girl named Michelle Funk fell into a creek and was submerged for 66 minutes. When rescuers arrived she didn’t have a pulse and was not breathing. More than 3 hours after when her blood was warmed and it reached 77°F, she came back to life. She is still alive to this day.

24. In 2010, in Paris, an 18-month-old infant fell from a 6th story window, bounced off the awning of a cafe below, and was then caught, unharmed, by a doctor who happened to be walking by.

25. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't properly form until the child reaches 3-5 years of age.