Baby

HISTORY

In Bible times, new born babies were bound up tightly in strips of cloth as this was meant to keep the baby strong. If the limbs were tightly bound Jewish mothers believed that their babies would grow straight. These strips of cloth were four or five inches wide and 15 to 18 feet long. Hence, Mary wrapped Jesus in cloths before placing him in a manger. (Luke 2 v 7)

The word ‘infant’ comes from the Latin ‘infans’ which means ‘unable to speak’

The ancients Spartans bathed their newborn baby boys in wine to test their strength.

Soranus (1st/2nd century) was a Greek Physician from Ephesus who practiced medicine in Alexandria and Rome. He was recognized as the foremost expert on childbirth and child care in his day and taught that breast-feeding should not begin until the third day; a baby, he said, should first be fed on diluted and boiled honey.

In medieval China, it was not unusual for a mother to breast-feed a child until the child was seven years old.

Virginia Dare, born on  August 18, 1587 on Roanoke Island, was the first child born of English parents in the New World. She was born to English parents Ananias Dare and Eleanor Whit and named after the Virginia Colony. Her grandfather was Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke. 

Baptism of Virginia Dare

The first baby born on the Mayflower during its voyage to the New World was named Oceanus Hopkins. The second child born after the ship set anchor was christened Peregrine White.

James Madison Randolph, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House.

Martin Couney ran infant incubator exhibits in the early 20th century, in which premature babies were displayed to the public. He maintained his facility for 40 years at Coney Island, and set up a similar one at Atlantic City in 1905, which he also ran until 1943. Couney didn’t charge the parents a penny, instead visitors paid 25 Cents to get in. This covered all the costs to run the facility. Many babies with no chances to survive were saved.

In 1946 the pediatrician Dr Benjamin Spock wrote a best-selling book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care whose message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do." It has been translated into 39 languages and has sold over 50 million copies, more copies than any other work of non-fiction apart from the Bible. It is the 7th best selling book of all time.

At least one piece of advice from Baby and Child Care was discredited decades after it was first published. Spock recommended putting babies to sleep on their stomachs in order to reduce the risk of infants choking on their own vomit; by the 1990s, that practice was linked to sudden infant death syndrome.

One in 2,000 babies is born with teeth: Julius Caesar, Richard III, Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XIV all shared that distinction.

BABY FUN FACTS

All babies are color blind when they are born.

A newborn baby has around 300 bones. Many of these fuse together to leave an adult’s 206

Human babies are 75% water at birth, a slightly higher water content than bananas and slightly less than fresh potatoes.

Newborns urinate approximately every 20 minutes.

In newborn babies, 87% of the energy they burn is used to operate their brains.

Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

Babies whose moms speak a tonal language—like Mandarin or Thai—have higher melodic variation in their cries than other babies.

Deaf babies or ones born to deaf parents babble with their hands instead of vocalized babbling. Thus indicating that babbling is not nonsense, but instead an important part of language acquisition.

Up to the age of about six months babies can breathe and swallow at same time.

If you blow gently into a baby's face, she takes a big gulp of air and holds her breath for a second. This is called the bradycardic reflex and is useful for swimming lessons, washing babies face in the tub, and a brief quick crying interruption. 

A one-year-old baby is 30 per cent fat.

An average girl reaches half her adult height at 18 months. For a boy it is 24 months.

In a baby’s first year, parents lose around 350 hours of sleep at night.

Every second, somewhere in the world, 4.45 babies are born and 1.8 people die.

Sources Wikipedia, The Bible Made Simple, Daily Express