Can you tell which baby facts are true or false?

Is this statement true or false: Babies can hear sounds while still in the womb.

True

Talking to an in-utero baby is not just an endearing quirk of expectant parents, it's science. Studies show that babies can hear voices (and some other noises) while in the womb. This ability begins at week 23. Your baby could hear your voice and other sounds from about 23 weeks of pregnancy.

False

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Is this statement true or false: A newborn's stomach is approximately the size of a watermelon.

True

False

At birth, a baby’s stomach is roughly the size of a hazelnut. This is why babies only drink a few ounces at a time and must be fed several times a day. Like most of other parts of a baby’s body, this organ grows quickly. By the end of their first week after birth, the hazelnut has grown into the size of an apricot, and the size of a large chicken egg by the end of the second week.

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Is this statement true or false: A baby's brain is already full sized at birth.

True

False

Baby brains are not full sized at birth, but they catch up quickly. By their first birthday, a baby's brain will have grown to approximately 60% of its final adult size.

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Is this statement true or false: The average weight of a newborn is 7-8 lbs.

True

The average baby weight is 7 to 8 lbs., although anywhere from 5-10 is considered healthy. The heaviest baby ever born was 22 lbs. 8 oz, in Italy in 1955. The smallest baby ever to survive weighed only 8.5 oz. at birth in Germany in 2016.

False

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Is this statement true or false: A baby is born with full sized eyes and 20/20 vision.

True

False

While baby eyes can look big compared to the rest of their face, they are not fully formed. In reality, they are approximately 75% of adult size, and their vision is around 20/400. Ideally, the vision adjusts as the baby ages, and they should reach 20/20 by 6 months of age.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies are born with kneecaps.

True

This common misconception stems from the fact that infant kneecaps don’t show up in x-rays. They are made up of cartilage and fuse into bones later in life.

False

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Is this statement true or false: A newborn baby’s head is equal to approximately 10% of its entire body weight.

True

False

While it might be different in calculating body length, the head of a newborn is equal to about 25% of their total body weight.

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Is this statement true or false: Newborns are able to see up to three feet away.

True

False

The eyes of a newborn are not fully developed at birth and their depth and range increase as they grow. As such, newborns are only able to focus 8 to 10 inches from their face, the perfect distance for breast/bottle feeding.

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Is this statement true or false: Red is the first color babies are able to recognize.

True

Studies have shown that the first color babies recognize is the color red. Until they are developed enough to recognize color, babies prefer black and white images to colored ones.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Baby girls typically weigh more than baby boys.

True

False

While the difference is less than a pound, baby boys do tend to weigh more than baby girls. The average newborn boy weighs 7 lbs. 10 oz. while a newborn girl has an average weight of 7 lbs. 2 oz.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies are born with more bones than adults.

True

It sounds made-up, but it’s completely true. Babies are born with 300 bones. These bones fuse together as they grow and eventually, the count comes down to 206 bones (the number adults have).

False

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Is this statement true or false: Babies have the same amount of taste buds as an adult.

True

False

There’s actually a scientific reason why many babies are picky eaters, and that reason is that they have way more taste buds than adults, and in more places in the mouth. A baby has around 30,000 taste buds, three times more than most adults. Also, adult taste buds are only located on the tongue, but infant taste buds are on the tongue as well as on the sides, back, and roof of the mouth. Eventually, these extra taste buds disappear.

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Is this statement true or false: A newborn typically sleeps up to 16 or 17 hours a day.

True

The phrase “slept like a baby” gets its origins from this completely true fact. However, any new parent will tell you, it's not consecutive. For the first month or so, babies do not sleep longer than 2-4 hours at a time. But a few hours here and a few hours there add up fast.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Worldwide, more babies are born on Tuesdays than any other day.

True

The worldwide average is Tuesday, but the United States loves to be different. The most popular birthday for American babies is Wednesday. Sunday is the slowest day, both in the U.S .and around the world.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Babies can breathe and swallow at the same time.

True

This is true, although the ability fades away around their 7th month of life. No one is quite sure why this ability exists or what purpose it serves.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Winter is the most popular season for births.

True

False

Statistics show that more babies are born in late summer and early fall (July, August, and September) than in other times of the year. Winter is actually the slowest season as far as birth rates go, February, in particular.

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Is this statement true or false: A baby's heartbeat is slower than that of an adult.

True

False

A typical infant heart beats 130 to 160 times per minute. By the time they reach 1 year old, their heart rate is closer to 115 beats per minute. By comparison, the average adult’s heart rate is 70-80 beats per minute.

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Is this statement true or false: Approximately one-third of all babies are born with a birthmark of some kind.

True

It's true that approximately 33% of all babies have some kind of birthmark. The most common type of birthmark is what's known as a stork mark. Storm marks are pale pink patches on a baby's face or neck. They tend to look redder when the baby is crying. Stork marks tend to disappear within six months.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Babies remain at their birth weight for the first week of their lives.

True

False

Considering how tiny they are to begin with, many parents don’t realize that their newborn loses weight in their first week. Typically, babies lose between 5-10% of their body weight, which tends to be less than 1 lb. But don’t worry about this accidental crash diet. The majority of babies have returned to their birth weight by the end of week two.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies have the ability to smell while still in the womb.

True

Around the 25th week of pregnancy, a fetus begins to breathe in amniotic fluid, which enhances thei olfactory receptors and makes it easier to smell things.

False

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Is this statement true or false: The brains of newborn girls grow faster than the brains of newborn girls.

True

False

Studies show that when it comes to brain growth, boys are winning the race. Their brains develop more quickly in the first three months of life than those of girls, especially the areas of the brain that control movement and motor skills. But the girls are also winners since their sensory development is quicker and more thorough. Basically, boys can think and move sooner, and girls can hear and see better.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies develop the ability to taste salt at approximately four months old.

True

Despite their multitude of taste buds, babies cannot taste salt until they are a third of the way through their first year of life. Scientists hypothesize the four-month gap may be connected to kidney development because kidneys do not start to process sodium until the baby is four months old.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Several sensory organs are completely developed before birth.

True

False

There is actually only one sensory organ that is fully developed before the baby is born: the inner ear. By week 20 of pregnancy, the baby’s inner ear has reached its final adult size.

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Is this statement true or false: A baby’s intestines are twice as long as those of an adult. They fuse and shorten as the child ages.

True

False

Infant intestines do not shrink as they age. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Newborn intestines are about 11 feet long and will double as the child becomes an adult.

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Is this statement true or false: May babies tend to weigh more than babies born in other months.

True

No one is quite sure why, but statistics show that babies born in May tend to weigh an average of 7 ounces more than babies born in other months of the year.

False

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Is this statement true or false: 1 in 8 babies in the US are born premature.

True

Despite medical advancements and improved prenatal care, more than half a million babies are born prematurely in the United States each year, equalling one premie for every seven term babies.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Mothers in Nigeria are more likely to have twins than mothers in Japan.

True

No one is quite sure why, but the chance of having twins is higher in Nigeria than in Japan. The Nigerian odds are 22-1 (which is still kind of a long shot). By comparison, if a Japanese mother wanted to have twins, she would face 200-1 odds.

False

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Is this statement true or false: The word “infant” has Latin roots.

True

As with many medical terms, “infant” has Latin roots. It comes from the Latin word “infans,, meaning “unable to speak” and refers to a child under 12 months old, after which they become a toddler. A “newborn” refers specifically to an infant in the first month of life.

False

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Is this statement true or false: On average, babies go through approximately 2,700 diapers a month.

True

False

The number is correct, but not the time frame. It takes a year for babies to go through 2,700 diapers. Most childcare professionals and experts recommend changing a baby’s diaper every two hours (unless they poop, in which case, change them immediately). Some states even mandate this as a rule in daycares and preschools.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies grasp the concept of object permanence around 8-9 months of age.

True

Object permanence is the understanding that things still exist, even if a baby can not see them. This means that if an adult hides a toy behind their back while playing with a 5-month-old, the 5-month-old will think the toy is completely gone. Once they understand object permanence, the baby will know that the toy still exists, even if they don't know where it is.

False

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Is this statement true or false: A newborn baby has about three pints of blood in their body.

True

False

Babies are simply not big enough to fit three pints of blood in their bodies. On average, babies have half a pint of blood. By comparison, adults have 10-12 pints of blood.

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Is this statement true or false: Babies are not able to form long-term memories until age three.

True

While they are able to form short-term memories, such as remembering familiar faces, these memories fade quickly. Because they have what psychologists call “infantile amnesia," children do not remember things that happen to them until the age of three. There are two theories as to why this occurs. Some neuroscientists believe that it takes three years for the brain’s recording machinery to become functional. Others believe that memory is tied to language acquisition, so babies can’t remember until they can speak fluently.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Babies develop a mustache in the womb, which they eventually eat.

True

As disturbing as this is to think about, it’s completely true. Usually, around the fourth month of pregnancy, every baby grows a mustache that spreads over the entire body by the fifth month. This hair is called lanugo. The lanugo falls off the body before birth and eaten by the baby. Once digested, this becomes known as meconium, which becomes part of the baby’s first poop. Brings “you are what you eat” to a whole new level.

False

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Is this statement true or false: When newborns cry, they are not actually crying tears.

True

It’s not the newborn is faking, it’s simply that they are physically unable to cry. For the first month of life, babies are unable to produce tears, so they are merely screaming.

False

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Is this statement true or false: Babies are born with a completely solid and hard head.

True

False

Babies are born with four soft spots on their skull, known as fontanels. Each fontanel is made of membranous gaps and they exist to allow for the rapid growth of the infant’s brain within the confines of a bony skull. The posterior fontanel, in the back of the skull, closes in 2-3 months. The sphenoidal fontanel, near the temple, closes around 6 months of age. The mastoid fontanel closes between 6-18 months and is located behind the ear. Lastly, the anterior fontanel, near the front of the skull, closes between 18-24 months.

FINISH QUIZ

Can you tell which baby facts are true or false?

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