The newborn is strange
For nine months we imagined it perfect. A beautiful baby with soft pink skin, little hair, a round head and a beautiful angelic face. But here it is, a few hours after giving birth that we notice some really bizarre oddity that makes us worry and alarms us. What to do if the newborn is strange and when to worry? In reality not always the baby it looks perfect as we dreamed of it, it may have some weirdness but it is absolutely benign and will disappear within a few weeks. We see 10 completely normal oddities that needn't worry us, from fluff to acne.
10 PHOTOS
10 oddities in the newborn
Isn't the newborn what you imagined? Here are ten weird things that can happen in newborns
- Fluff: hair on the head is fine but what if the baby is full of hair on the back, arms and face? In fact, it is quite easy for the newborn to have thick and soft hair on the back, thighs and shoulders, but also on the cheeks, on the forehead. What is it about? Is called fluff, a fine hair that covers the fetus during pregnancy. In most cases it disappears at the end of gestation but some babies may still have it, especially if they are born before expected. If your baby has fluff, don't worry too much: the fluff will disappear within a few weeks.
- Green poop: the newborn's first poop has a slimy texture and is green in color. It is called meconium and this too is completely normal. It is a mixture of bile, digestive secretions and other cells from the gastrointestinal tract that accumulates in the fetal intestine and is evacuated within hours of birth. The baby will continue to do this greenish poop for a couple of days.
- He has a ball on his headThe presence of a small lump under the skin on the skull should not worry. Typically this is a slight spill of blood and serum on the scalp and is caused by a slight trauma suffered during childbirth. The lump should go away in a few days.
- It has an elongated head: Does the child's skull have a strange shape, perhaps elongated upwards or flat behind? Nothing to worry about. The skull bones of the fetus (and also of the newborn) are very soft and flexible, because this allows the baby to come out of the birth canal. Especially after a natural birth it is quite common for the baby to have some oddity in the skull, everything will be fine in a short time.
- It has small white dots: it's called milia and it's a benign rash that mostly affects the nose, cheeks, forehead and chin. These small cysts are caused by an excessive production of sebum by the sebaceous glands stimulated by hormones. Will soon pass.
- He has a strange eye colorIt is always said that babies' eyes are all blue. And that's true enough, but mostly they look glassy, of a strange indefinite hue. Nothing to worry about: the true color of the eyes will be revealed and defined in the first year of life.
- His skin is yellow: the yellowish color that affects many newborns is caused by jaundice. What is it about? It is the yellowish color of the skin and mucous membranes and occurs when the liver is unable to dispose of the excess bilirubin in the blood formed by the destruction of red blood cells; the liver of newborns, especially if they are premature, is not yet completely efficient and cannot dispose of it autonomously, which is why therapy under the blue lamp is needed. The mother was thinking about it in her womb placenta to do this work but for the liver of the newborn, which produces more red blood cells than an adult (and therefore with their destruction there will be more bilirubin in the blood) it can be difficult to eliminate it. A condition linked to an excess of bilirubin in the blood that is not properly disposed of by the liver. In most cases it is sufficient to subject the baby to phototherapy, which will be done in the hospital in the first days of life, and then also at home: just expose it to the sun's rays, perhaps behind a window, for a few minutes every day to see the skin return to a beautiful pink color.
- Has rough skin: the baby's skin may appear rough and cracked in the first few days and not as soft and silky as we imagined. The cause is the hollow varnish, a kind of fatty coating that protected the fetus during its stay in the amniotic fluid. It will disappear soon.
- His chest is swollen: some babies may have slight chest swelling and girls may have a swollen vulva. What are these strange symptoms due to? In reality they are simply caused by the transfer of maternal hormones. Phenomena that will disappear in a couple of weeks.
- He has a weird spot on his bottomSome babies have a brownish gray or dark blue patch on the back of the back or buttocks. It is called "cutaneous melanocytosis", it is completely benign and fades over time.
