11 things you probably didn’t know about babies

​Irregular breathing is normal
Sleeping babies can scare the heck out of you by pausing without a breath for 5-10 seconds. This is normal! And when babies are excited or they have just stopped crying, the can take more than 60 breaths per minute. (Of course, if your child stops breathing for more than 10 seconds or is turning blue, this is a medical emergency.)
 
Taste buds everywhere
Babies are born with the same number of taste buds as an adult, but unlike the taste sensors of an adult, they are located on the tonsils and the back of the throat!

 Hold the salt
Newborns cannot taste salt. They can taste sweet, bitter and sour, but their ability to taste salt only starts around 5 months of age. The ability to distinguish between sweet and bitter/sour makes sense, since the breast milk of a healthy mom is sweet.
 
Babies like familiar tastes
Babies tend to prefer the foods their mom ate while pregnant and breastfeeding. This is a good thing to think about if you hope to encourage healthy eating (for yourself and your baby!).

Dry eyes?
Babies start to cry around 2-3 weeks of age, but their tears do not show up until they are a month old. 

Looking to the right
85% of newborns prefer to turn their head to the right when lying on their back. This preference appears to be genetic and lasts for a few months. Some researchers think that this right-side bias might be linked to right- or left-handedness (Estimates of the number of naturally left-handed people varies form 9-12 percent globally). 

 
Dreading late afternoons and evenings?
Have you started to dread the late afternoon and evening? It might be because this is the prime time for babies to be fussy. Sometimes there is no obvious reason and there is nothing you can do to help it stop. Just reassure them that you are there for them. Babies can have bad days, too!

 Month two is going to be noisy
Babies will cry more than any other time when they reach 46 weeks after gestation. This means that full-term babies will enter this stage at approximately 6-8 weeks old. For preemies, this stage occurs when they are older since they were born earlier. By 3 months after gestation, this period of intense crying tends to pass. Whew!

​Babies have more nerve cells than  adults.
When babies are born, they have all the nerve cells they will ever have, even though their brain is much smaller than an adult sized brain. As we age, the neurons that die are not replaced, so babies have far more of these cells than an adult.
 
Not all birthmarks are permanent
Researchers do not know what causes birth marks that disappear over time such as pink or red areas often on the forehead, eyelids, bridge of the nose, or back of the neck (sometimes known as “stork bites” or “angel kisses”), or bluish patches on the back or bottom (known as Mongolian spots), but they are harmless.
* Spots that start to change shape or colour may be something else. Never self-diagnose any skin conditions. Always check with your doctor.

 Babies can scare themselves.
Babies can startle themselves with their own cries! If you see your newborn fling their arms out to the sides, hands open, then quickly close them up and tuck them back in toward their body, you’ve just seen their startle response. Babies can also react in fear to loud noises, strong scents, bright lights and sudden motion. Researchers think that this startle reflex, known as the Moro reflex, might have developed as a warning signal to mom that a young monkey was off-balance and needed to be helped immediately.

If you have any questions or concerns about your baby’s health, contact a health-care professional. The content of this article is meant to entertain and not to diagnose.
  
Want to learn more?
BabyCentre: "Developmental milestones: taste."
KidsHealth: "Looking at Your Newborn: What's Normal," "What Are Taste Buds?" "Birthmarks."
Menella, J. Pediatrics, June 2001.
AboutKidsHealth: "Eye Concerns in Newborn Babies," "Crying,"
LiveScience: "11 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Baby's Brain."
Michel, G. Science, May 8, 1981.
Neuroscience For Kids, University of Washington: "Brain Development."
Johns Hopkins Medicine: "The Growing Child: Newborn."
Futagi, Y. International Journal of Pediatrics, 2012.
 
Images: Getty Images