Did you know? 18
That your teeth start growing six months before you are born. While few babies are born with teeth in place, the teeth that will eventually push through the gums of young children are formed long before the child even leaves the womb. At 9 to 12 weeks the foetus starts to form the teeth buds that will turn into baby teeth.
That the three things pregnant women dream mostly about during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Pregnancy hormones can cause mood swings, cravings and many other unexpected changes. Oddly enough, hormones can often affect the types of dreams women have and their vividness. The most common are these three types, but many women also dream of water, giving birth or even have violent or sexually charged dreams.
That a foetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months. When a small fraction of the way through its development, a foetus will have already developed one of the most human traits; fingerprints. At only 6-13 weeks of development, the whorls of what will be fingerprints have already developed. Oddly enough, those fingerprints will not change throughout the person’s life and will be one of the last things to disappear after death…
That babies are, pound for pound, stronger than an ox. While a baby certainly could not pull a covered wagon at its present size, if the child were the size of an oxen it just might very well be able to. Babies have especially strong and powerful legs for such tiny creatures, so watch out for those kicks.
That one out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born. Nursing mothers may cringe at this fact. Sometimes the tooth is a regular baby tooth that has already erupted and sometimes it is an extra tooth that will fall out before the other set of choppers comes in.
That everyone has a unique smell, except for identical twins. Newborns are able to recognize the smell of their mothers and many of us can pinpoint the smell of our significant others and those we are close to. Part of that smell is determined by genetics, but it’s also largely due to environment, diet and personal hygiene products that create a unique chemistry for each person.
That babies are always born with blue eyes. The colour of your eyes depends on the genes you get from your parents, but at birth, most babies appear to have blue eyes. The reason behind this is the pigment melanin. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye colour.
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