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Psychologists in America were surprised to find that a newborn can have a
very elementary knowledge of physics and math. A baby is able to tell
the difference between one, two, and three objects. If one is taken away
or added, she may even know how many remain. Babies will show clear
surprise if one is taken away unexpectedly.
Babies are always listening -- even before they're born. Even a baby as
young as two days old will recognize his mother's voice, even if he only
hears one single syllable.
Although your baby can cry at birth, you won't usually see any tears for
a few weeks or months. Tears can appear at three weeks, but some babies
won't have tears until they're four or five months old. Stress hormones
are found in tears and releasing these hormones is a way to calm your
baby down. Stress tears are unique to people -- no other animal has
them.
Your baby has a specific cry that
you can recognize just three days after birth. Researchers have found
that a new mom can pick out her baby's individual cry even if there are
other crying babies in the room.
Scientists in Norway found that if a newborn is placed directly onto his
mother's stomach right after birth, the baby will start to use his arms
and legs to slowly crawl to his mother's breast to nurse. The newborn
then latched on and started to nurse unassisted.
In your baby's first three months of life,
he can only see things that are eight or nine inches away. This is the
perfect distance to see your face when you're holding and feeding your
baby, but it also lets him focus on his hands and the rest of his own
body.
A baby can read tone and respond to it appropriately. If you speak to
your baby in a happy voice, but with a scared tone, or in a mean voice
with a smile, your baby will likely show signs of agitation.
If your baby continued his first year's growth rate, he would be 170 feet tall by the time he becomes an adult!
Your baby's brain will double in the first year of life. The brain at one-year-old is half the size of an adult brain.
Within 10 minutes after birth, your baby's sense of hearing is
sophisticated enough that he can determine where a sound is coming from.
A newborn has coping mechanisms to help if she becomes too cold or too
hot. If a baby is cold, she will move around more to warm herself up. If
she is hot, she will fling her arms and legs out of the side, as if
she's sunbathing. If you see your baby exhibit these behaviors, check
the temperature!
Your baby loves the sound of human speech. This is part of the reason
why her early language includes imitating words rather than a ringing
phone.
At six months, a baby can tell distinguish between individual human and
individual monkey faces. By nine months, they lose the ability to
distinguish between monkeys, though they can still tell the difference
between humans.
Right after birth, a newborn's pupils dilate. This helps parents fall in
love with their new baby because this is a sign that she thinks you're
attractive.
Immediately after birth, your baby can take five to 10 minutes to become
used to something new in her environment. By the time she is three
months old, your baby will be able to adapt between 30 seconds and two
minutes. By the time she's six months old, she'll adapt in just 30
seconds.
A baby can smile instinctively. For years, experts thought a baby smiled
because she was just copying the actions of those around her, but even
blind babies can smile.
When they're very young, a baby's sense of smell is quite developed.
It's much stronger than yours and a newborn uses his sense of smell to
get to know his parents. Avoid strong smells like fabric softener,
perfume, and shampoos to help your baby know who you are.
A baby as young as 25 weeks can respond to touch and it's a newborn's
most advanced sense. The development of the sense of touch starts at the
head and stretches down to the toes, which is why babies put things in
their mouths.
Parents use special, low-keyed speech rhythm to attract and keep their
baby's attention. Psychologists have learned that this speech pattern is
instinctive and call it "motherese." A baby responds intensively, which
encourages parents to continue to speak in motherese.
Your baby is connected to your emotions and your feelings -- even before
he's born. Researchers had pregnant women listen to different types of
music via headphones and then tracked their baby's movements with an
ultrasound. If the mom was listening to music that she enjoyed, the
babies moved around more. While many babies move around when music is
playing, the headphones meant that the babies were responding to their
mother's emotions and not the music itself.
Your newborn needs to be close to you and her entire body is designed to
make you help her feel safe. Her sweet little nose, large eyes, round
forehead, and chubby arms and legs are all designed to trigger an
emotional response that elicits a feeling of fierce love and protection
so you will do everything in your power to keep her feeling warm and
safe. The next time you watch a cartoon, pay attention to how the
artists depict a baby when they want him to look cute. Oftentimes, these
features are exaggerated to draw out a respo
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