TERRIFYING FACTS ABOUT NEWBORNS

TERRIFYING FACTS ABOUT NEWBORNS THAT NOBODY TELLS YOU

Everyone after being married needs a baby in their life.If you are about to become parents then prepare yourself to face these terrifying things. Here are some scary and terrifying facts about the newborns that you might not aware of:

1. NEWBORNS ARE COVERED IN BODY HAIR.

Have you ever wondered why your tiny little  newborn baby is already covered in hair?Here is your answer.Its is called 'LANUGO HAIR',which is very fine, soft,unpigmented and downy in nature.It is the first hair to be produced by the hair follicles and usually appears at 5 months of gestation,is present at birth and disappears within a few weeks or months and will be replaced by vellus hair. Lanugo hair helps regulate the body temperature while inside the womb like a fur coat.Lanugo hair can also be seen in malnourished people,teratomas and in animals.

Some newborns who are born with very little lanugo hair indicates that they have shed them inside the uterus and then ate it.

2) BABIES STARE AT YOU WHILE THEY SLEEP.

Don’t be scared,it’s a very common thing the babies sleep with half open rolling eyes. Studies  are still going on to find the exact reason why they do it though nothing has been found effective so far.But the best guess is that infants have a longer REM(rapid eye movement) phase,the most active phase in a sleep ,about 50% compared to the 20% in adults.

3) BABIES VOMIT FROM THEIR NOSES AND SPIT UP BLOOD.

Babies have underdeveloped gastroesophageal sphincter(prevents the reflux of food back) which causes the partially digested food from the stomach to reflux back into the mouth as well as the throat and finally finds its way out through the nostrils.During parturition,the infant might swallow maternal blood which it might vomit later.Similarly while breast feeding, minor cracks and bleeds on the nipple could get blood into the meal of the infant which might  also be refluxed back through nostrils.

4) A NEWBORN’S SOFT SPOT PULSES AND BULGES.

The soft spot also called ‘fontanelle’ is an anatomical feature on an infant’s skull comprised by any of the soft membranousgaps between the incompletely formed cranial bones of a foetus.These allow rapid stretching and deformation of the cranium as the bone expands and also makes the parturition easier.Fontanelle usually pulses or echoes the heartbeat perhaps via the arterial pulse within the brain vasculature or meninges and hence the name which means ‘fountain’.Though it’s commonly called soft spot, the menbranes covering it are extremely tough and difficult to penetrate.

But attention should also be given at some point because pathological bulging could occur during encephalitis,hydrocephalus and meningitis.

5) BOYS HAVE SWOLLEN SCROTUM S AND GET ERECTIONS.

Newborns are born with extra fluid in their bodies which they excrete over the first few days of their life. Genitals may also be swollen due to the extra dose of maternal hormones that babies get just before birth.This fluid tends to collect in specific areas  like genitalia causing swollen scrotum in boys.This is a condition commonly called ‘hydrocoele’ that would go away by the end of first year.

6) GIRLS HAVE PERIODS AND ALL BABIES LACTATE.

The baby has been exposed to maternal hormones while inside the womb.Once the baby is born,these hormones are cut off,except whatever they are getting through breast milk.This results in shedding of uterine lining which is usually visualised as ‘mini period’.

It must be an entirely new knowledge to atleast some of you that all babies lactate. It’s called ‘Witch’s milk’ or neonatal milk.This is more likely in full term infants.It’s thought to be caused by a combination of the effects of maternal hormones before birth, prolactin and growth hormone passed through breast feeding and the postnatal pituitary and thyroid  hormone surge in the infant.It might also be caused by some medications.