Mummy's entry - Interesting baby facts

Got to know some interesting facts recently from a friend which I’m sure many of us are not aware. Do you know the differences of a baby’s body to that of an adult?

Some of them are:-

1) When baby’s arms are up in full length, they only reach the head or perhaps slightly higher than the head.

2) Their ears are positioned just slightly above the shoulders.

3) The proportion of their head size to that of their torso is like 1 to 1 and a half

Compare these to that of an adult. Hehe.

Anyway, there are many other differences too. Tried to search on the Net but the only thing I found was this :-

"Body proportions change remarkably from birth to maturity. At birth, a baby's head is one-fourth the size of the body, the forehead is wider than the chin, the lower jaw is small and receding. Growth lengthens the limbs and trunk so that at about two years of age the general body configuration is longer and thinner and the head is about one fifth the size of the body. At six years of age, the body has stretched out further so that the head occupies about one-sixth of its length. The tendency for linear growth continues until puberty when the body tends to broaden relative to height. At about age 15 the head is one-seventh the size of the body which is maintained through life."

And back to the thumb sucking issue, I came across www.drgreene.com which stated fast facts on thumb sucking…

- Children who suck their thumbs are able to begin at an early age to meet their own need for sucking. These children fall asleep more easily, are able to put themselves back to sleep at night more easily, and sleep through the night much earlier than infants who do not suck their thumbs.

- A study by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton indicates that as many as 94% have finished with sucking their thumbs by their first birthdays.

- According to the American Dental Association, thumb sucking does not cause permanent problems with the teeth or jaw line, unless it is continued beyond four to five years of age.Many studies have looked at the number of children who continue to suck their thumbs at this time. As it turns out, somewhere between 85% to 99% of children have finished thumb sucking spontaneously before this period (the numbers vary depending on the study).

- When investigators looked at this group of late thumb-suckers for common traits, they found that they had one thing in common that distinguished them from other children -- a prolonged history of a strong battle with thumb sucking at an earlier age. It is striking that many well-meaning parents have actually encouraged this behavior by trying to forcibly take the thumb out of their children's mouths.

Click here if you want to read more on this.