Baby

An infant or baby is an extremely young person. The term "infant" derives from the Latin word in-fans, meaning "unable to speak." There is no exact definition for infancy. Quite often babies are called infants until they reach the age of one. more...

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However, babies are traditionally called "toddlers" when they start to walk whether or not they have reached their first birthday. Daycares with an "infant room" providing care will call all their children in the infant room "infants" even if they are older than a year and/or walking; they will sometimes use the term "walking infant". Babies at this stage are referred to as "wobblers".

"Infant" is also a legal term with the meaning of minor; that is, any child under the age of legal adulthood. A human infant less than a month old is a newborn infant or a neonate. The term "newborn" includes premature infants and postmature infants, as well as full term newborns.

The newborn's appearance

A newborn's shoulders and hips are narrow, the abdomen protrudes slightly, and the arms and legs are relatively short. The average weight of a full-term newborn is approximately 7 ½ pounds (3.2 kg), but can be anywhere from 5.5–10 pounds (2.7–4.6 kg). The average total body length is 14–20 inches (35.6–50.8 cm), although premature newborns may be much smaller. The Apgar score is a measure of a newborn's transition from the womb during the first ten minutes of life.

A newborn's head is very large in proportion to the rest of the body, and the cranium is enormous relative to his or her face. While the adult human skull is about 1/8 of the total body length, the newborn's is twice that. At birth, many regions of the newborn's skull have not yet been converted to bone. These "soft spots" are known as fontanels; and the two largest are the diamond-shaped anterior fontanel, located at the top front portion of the head, and the smaller triangular-shaped posterior fontanel, which lies at the back of the head.

During labor and birth, the infant's skull changes shape to fit through the birth canal, sometimes causing the child to be born with a misshapen or elongated head. It will usually return to normal on its own within a few days or weeks. Special exercises sometimes advised by physicians may assist the process.

Some newborns have a fine, downy body hair called lanugo. It may be particularly noticeable on the back, shoulders, forehead, ears and face of premature infants. Lanugo disappears within a few weeks. Likewise, not all infants are born with lush heads of hair. Some may be nearly bald while others may have very fine, almost invisible hair. Some babies are even born with a full head of hair. Amongst fair-skinned parents, this fine hair may be blond, even if the parents are not. The scalp may also be temporarily bruised or swollen, especially in hairless newborns, and the area around the eyes may be puffy.

Read more at Wikipedia.org