20 amazing facts about newborns that will impress everyone at your NCT meet-up

1) According to science, you are addicted to their smell

 A University of Montreal study looked at the brains of 15 new mums and found the smell of a newborn brought out the same pleasure and sense of craving that food does when we’re hungry.

2) It's completely normal for their hair to fall out

Your little one may have a shock of black hair now – but it won’t necessarily stay that way. It can fall out altogether in the first few weeks, then grow back over the next year, or go from straight to curly in months.

3) Birthmarks occur during labour

Birthmarks are common and come in a range of shapes, sizes and colours. ‘These occur when the tiny blood vessels under the skin are dilated during labour,’ says paediatrician Dr Martin Ward Platt. ‘Certain types may not appear for several days or weeks after birth, but most go away in the first few years.’

4) A newborn baby can only see clearly to a distance of 20-38cm

Your baby has blurry vision when it comes to things in the distance, but can pick up objects within this range. Especially your face if it’s close enough.

5) The're born with around 70 natural reflexes

Around 70 of them. These are primitive and down to evolution, including things like sucking and stepping – if you support your baby upright with his feet on a flat surface, his legs will work with a stepping motion. He obviously can’t walk now but may be born with a knowledge of how to for when he’s older.

Source: The Pregnancy And Baby Book (DK)

6) A baby is only alert for around three minutes every hour

This is because they're super sleepy. It's even less at night!

 

7) Your baby is born with a startle reflex to loud noise, movement or the feeling of falling 

This is your baby’s startle (Moro) reflex. It makes him fling his arms up and out, open his fists wide and draw his knees up, before going back to how he was in seconds. This reflex tends to ease by six months.

8) They will instinctively seek out your boob for breastfeeding

A research team discovered that if a newborn is left on his mother’s chest after birth, he’ll eventually crawl up and find her breast to feed, guided by her smell. Incredible, right? He also has a Rooting reflex – if you stroke his cheek, he’ll turn in that direction with his mouth open ready to feed.

9) They will know your pregnancy playlist

Babies recognise songs they hear in the womb for up to four months after birth, according to University of Helsinki research. In fact, you might even find all that Beyoncé helps soothe him now.

10) There are 300 parts to his skeleton

Mainly made up of cartilage, which turns into bone over time. As he grows, some of his bones fuse together, leaving him with 206 by the time he’s a grown-up.

11) You can coordinate heart rates if you both look into eachother's eyes

That was a discovery made by a team at an Israeli university, which found that when a mum and newborn faced and looked each other in the eye, their heart rates co-ordinated in seconds.

12) A newborn can recognise his mum's voice from just one syllable

It activates an area of his brain associated with language processing, meaning mum's input is vital for speech development 

13) They want to put everything in their mouth

OK, he may be a bit too young to chew on your keys or the cat’s tail, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to. New French research suggests infants are born with an instinct to put things in their mouth as part of a survival-of-the-fittest mentality to make sure they’re fed.

14) The most sensitive touch receptors are in and around their mouth.

Your newborn uses his sense of touch to explore what’s around him. 

Source: The Pregnancy And Baby Book (DK)

15) They can be strong enough to actually  support their own body weight.

Although perhaps don’t put that one to the test!

16) They cry with your accent

Yes, really. A team from the University of Würzburg in Germany found that babies pick up their mum’s native tongue in the last three months of pregnancy and reflect characteristics of the language in the pattern of their crying after birth.

17) Newborns doesn’t produce actual tears.

Despite the wailing, you may notice your newborn doesn’t produce actual tears. His tear ducts aren’t fully developed and while they produce enough moisture to keep his eyes healthy, they won’t give proper tears for several weeks.

18) Their eye colour may change

All babies are born with blue eyes. Basically, the pigmentation process in his iris hasn’t started working yet – it does kick in though, and your baby’s true eye colour usually becomes apparent around six months old.

19) Your baby’s head makes up a quarter of his total body length right now

His brain takes up 10 per cent of his total body weight. The rest of him is growing to catch up.

Source: The Pregnancy And Baby Book (DK)

20) Newborns tend to resemble both parents equally

The idea used to be that newborns look more like their dads. This was scientifically backed (in part, anyway) by a US study in the 90s, but more recent research suggests this isn’t the case and that newborns tend to resemble both parents equally.