Nothing looks more fragile and defenseless than the newborn you first pick up. But in fact, it turns out that in some way babies are very hardy and capable. Your newborn baby is capable of doing interesting things that you can only dream of. But we were able to find out only thanks to crazy scientific experiments - in any case, do not conduct them on your child.
Fun fact: newborn babies can swim
During the experiment, it turned out that newborn babies can instinctively hold their breath under water
One day, a group of scientists decided that it would be fun to dip 36 babies with their heads in cold water and see what happens. Surprisingly, instead of mass infanticide, they saw that the babies instinctively held their breath. They not only survived, but even laughed and smiled when they were taken out of the water.
Toddlers can do more than just hold their breath. Another experiment: the parents put the children in the water with their stomachs down and they began to kick and move their legs like a dog, which kept them afloat.
Studies have shown that babies can dive and swim, but this happens instinctively, and babies lose this ability by 6 months.
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Small children can regrow their fingertips
It turned out that the child's body is able to re-form the lost phalanx
Don't worry if your baby suddenly loses part of a limb. Dr. Christoph Allan believes that a child's body can regrow a fingertip if it is not interfered with.
Dr. Allan made this discovery with his little patient (the baby was eight at the time). The girl accidentally cut off the tip of her finger with a bicycle knitting needle and Dr. Allan could not sew it on, so he told her parents to just put the tip on her finger and maybe a miracle would happen.
A few weeks later, the girl went to see Dr. Allan again. She ignored the doctor's request, but the tip of her finger grew back. Further research only confirmed the fact that this is not an isolated case. The child's body is able to independently regenerate part of the phalanx if the damage has not reached the end of the nail plate.
Capturing a baby is as strong as a monkey
The baby's grip is so strong that it can hold its weight in suspension
When a newborn baby grasps the hand of mom or dad, none of the parents in this touching moment asks the question - how high can I lift him until he unhooks?
Fortunately, scientists are thinking in this direction, and they found out the answer. It turned out that if you let the newborn grip your index fingers, the grip force will be so strong that it will not fall when it rises into the air.
But don't try this trick at home, sometimes kids let their hands go in the air. Just take this already proven fact for granted.
Baby fingerprints fade quickly
Scientists have found that children's fingerprints disappear in a short time
Fingerprinting technology has made the fight against crime a step forward. Many cases are solved every day thanks to the fingerprints left at the crime scene. This problem would be solved if it was possible to train a group of toddlers and send them "to work". As it turned out, children's fingerprints disappear pretty quickly.
The experiment involved children under the age of 17. The subjects had to shake a bottle of alcohol, holding it with their index and thumb, and then took prints. Scientists found that children's prints quickly disappeared, while adults remained. The researchers speculate that this is because there are more fatty acids on the surface of the skin of young children, so they quickly disappear.
Children can consume unlimited sugar
Scientists have found that sugar is vital for the child's body
Sugar is metabolized differently in children than in adults. The child's body constantly requires sugar, which has a positive effect on development and can even be pain relieving.
They were created to love sweets and can eat them without restriction. A product containing more sugar than a can of Coca-Cola will be too sweet for an adult, but there are no such restrictions for children.
The experiment consisted in the following: children were given a glass of sweet water and asked to say when it would be too sweet. At the end of the experiment, the smallest were given a glass of water so sweet that sugar was no longer stirred, but even this was not the limit for them.
Newborns can crawl until they find a breast
If a newly born baby is not fed on time, he will crawl to his mother's breast.
Usually babies start crawling at 7-10 months. It turned out that this is because they have no incentive. If the baby is properly motivated, he can crawl until he gets out of the uterus.
The experiment was carried out on crumbs that were just born. The child was wiped off, put on the mother's stomach and did not feed. For the first 15 minutes, the children simply lay, then they began to suck air, and then they crawled to the mother's breast and sucked it.
So, you can make a newborn crawl if you leave it to itself for about an hour.
Babies act like a drug on the mother
The touch on the baby's skin soothes the mother and gives her a feeling of absolute happiness
If you have ever seen a mother holding her child in her arms, then you have seen a woman in the happiest and most peaceful state. And there is an explanation for this - the presence of the baby causes special chemical reactions in her brain.
From the first days of pregnancy, a woman's body produces oxytocin. We get this substance in the happiest moments (when we fall in love, have sex), and it gives us peace and well-being.
Mothers produce huge amounts of oxytocin when they care for or touch their baby. Therefore, if a mother is in a bad mood, it is enough for her to hold the child in her arms and everything will work out.
Newborns can eat as much as they want and not get fat
The body of children contains a large amount of brown fat, which protects the child from hypothermia
You don't need to worry about your baby's weight. Newborns have a lot of brown fat (about 5% of total body weight), which burns calories at the speed of light.
It is this fat that helps the child not to die from hypothermia. When the temperature drops, brown fat begins to actively burn calories and generate heat. 85 grams of this substance can burn 400-500 calories per day.
If you start to envy children, then you are not alone. Some scientists are so jealous of the fat-burning capabilities of the child's body that they are trying to achieve the same results in adults, but so far without success.
Children can speak dog language
Scientists believe small children understand dog language better than humans
Your baby may not understand everything you say, but he will definitely be able to understand some dog. Research into 6-month-old babies has shown that they can understand a dog's barking - even if they have never seen the animal before.
In the course of the study, the children were turned on recordings with cheerful and angry barking of dogs and at the same time were shown pictures depicting an angry or happy animal. Surprisingly, when recording with joyful barking, the children looked at the picture with a happy dog, and with an aggressive one, they chose the image of an evil one, since they instinctively understood the mood of the creature.
The fact that children could correctly match the tone of the bark and the picture does not mean that they knew how to respond correctly. Subjects continued to smile at the sound of aggressive barking, so do not rely on their instinct for self-preservation.
The body of a newborn is able to grow a heart again
Research proves that a baby mammal is able to restore up to 15% of the muscle tissue of the heart
This experiment was carried out on mice and led to an incredible discovery. If a newborn is cut off up to 15% of the muscle tissue of the heart, then it will grow again, and the organ will look like new.
Scientists took a newborn mouse seven days old and cut off a piece of his heart. As practice shows, the government sponsors scientists precisely for such purposes. Incredibly, in just three weeks, the mouse's heart fully recovered and functioned absolutely normally.
Scientists believe that a similar function applies to all mammals, but this has not yet been proven. The luminaries of science, of course, are allowed a lot, but there is hardly anyone who will allow them to cut off part of the heart of a newborn child.
Nature creates truly amazing defense mechanisms. Who would have thought that an ordinary baby is able to accomplish the almost impossible. And this is most likely not the limit. Let's see how scientists will delight us in the coming years.
Galina Lamtyugova