Thursday, September 15, 2011

Little Known Baby Facts

By Ali Garcia


Most people know at least the basic baby things. Most people know that it takes babies a while to get to know someone. Most babies are able to recognize their mothers immediately after being born, but you already knew that. You've probably learned that babies develop at their own rate. There is no set date for walking, talking, forming complete sentences, potty training, rolling over, etc. The truth is, however that there are lots of things about a child's development that most people do not know. Infancy is a fascinating period in human development. A life changes so much between the time it is conceived and the time it starts going to school. Those little bodies might look like they can't accomplish much but the fact is that those babies are working really hard to grow up!

Did you know already that babies are not very good at telling colors apart? A baby's eyes are still developing when she is born and the synapses between and her eyes and her brain are not yet mature. This is one of the reasons why babies respond better to primary colors whey they are used in a room or on toys. You should focus the color scheme for your baby on bright reds and blues and greens or even on black and white. It is difficult for a baby to tell the difference between softer or more pastel shades.

This is why a baby will sometimes choose one toy instead of another. So that means that all of those black and white mobiles that you scoff at in stores for being too "artsy" are actually better for your baby's developing eyes than the pastel one you were probably thinking of getting! You're already aware that a fetus can hear sounds while he is still in his mother's womb. Doctors have proven that babies can hear and react to the sounds that they hear-sometimes very strongly! Did you know that a fetus's ears are just as sensitive to varying decibel levels as those of an infant? You can hurt a baby's ears even before he is born! Your doctor will probably tell you that a good gauge for what is too loud is your vacuum cleaner: if your television or music is louder than the vacuum then that music or television show needs its volume turned down! The goal is to keep the noise down as much as possible but loud enough that you can still hear it; avoiding construction areas and places with heavy traffic sounds when you leave the house is also a good idea.

Did you know that at one point your baby had a tail? It's true! In addition to immediately beginning to build major organs, your baby will also start to form a tail during the first few weeks after conception.

The tail will begin to disappear as the rest of the baby's body takes shape as it grows inside the mother's womb. The process is sort of like the way a tadpole's tail gets swallowed up by the body of the frog. Some people have extra long tails that do not get completely absorbed and are born with small tails that are still intact. If this happens the baby's parents have to decide if they want to have the tail removed or If they simply want to wait and hope that it goes away as their child grows up.




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