10 things you don't know about babies

As future parents, you probably already have some knowledge about babies. But you will soon see it: infants sometimes have many surprises in store. Get ahead by discovering 10 often-overlooked things that will change your perception of newborns!

1 - Baby has tremendous strength

During their first months, infants often appear very fragile. If they really are, this does not prevent them from possessing a strength worthy of Hercules: babies are indeed able to bear their own weight from birth (and therefore to lift objects as heavy as themselves!).

2 - Baby is (without doubt) already a big dreamer

It's very likely that your little one is already spending their time dreaming before they even discover the world. Even though analyzing fetal brain activity is still very difficult today, researchers have still been able to show that babies already go through sleep cycles in their mother's womb. They were also able to distinguish certain reactions observed in the man during his sleep (such as rapid eye movements) before the 7th month of pregnancy.

3 - Baby knows how to distinguish sounds and smells at birth

From birth, the infant has the ability to distinguish certain sounds and smells. He can, for example, instantly recognize his mother's voice, as well as her body odor. At 3 months, his brain also allows him to categorize different sounds and associate them with a phenomenon, a person or an object.

4 - Baby has more bones than mom and dad

Did you know ? The body of an infant has more than 300 bones, while that of an adult has “only” 206. To arrive at this lower number in adulthood, the body fuses several bones together. during growth, especially those of the skull.

5 - Until his 1 month old, baby has no tears when he cries

Those who say that babies sometimes shed crocodile tears are not entirely wrong: before they are about 1 month old, babies cry without being able to shed tears because their tear ducts are not yet fully formed.

6 - Baby cannot distinguish all the colors

During his first months, your little one not only has poor eyesight, but he will also see the world in black and white until he is 6/7 weeks old. If at this age, he will be able to distinguish red and green, it will be necessary to wait until his 6 months so that he can perceive blue and yellow (but only if they are very bright colors) .

7 - Baby has a natural gift for languages

Unlike adults, infants can identify the 150 sounds that make up all the languages ​​of the world. This ability allows them to recognize their mother tongue from birth, and to be able to learn a foreign language much more easily than us.

8 - Baby can scream as loud as a jackhammer

All parents already know this: a baby's crying can be particularly unbearable to the ear, even with patience. And this is quite normal: indeed, the cries of a newborn baby can reach a sound volume of 120 decibels, or that of a jackhammer.

9 - Baby's brain adapts to its environment

Between their 6th and 28th week of life, babies go through a period of adaptation to the world around them. This is when their brain can compensate for some existing deficiencies: for example, if a baby has a hearing problem, his neurons will go specifically to sight and smell, in order to compensate.

10 - Baby does not smell like mankind when he is born

If during his first months baby emits an often very pleasant smell (which would also stimulate the production of dopamine, the hormone of well-being), he does not however have any odor that identifies him to the human race. At his birth.