- Soft spot: The anterior fontanel, a diamond-shaped soft area at the top of the skull. …
- Caput/Cephalohematoma: Fluid-filled swellings on the top of the scalp. …
- Ears: A pit or dimple in front of the ear is not uncommon. …
- Eyes: Eyelids may be swollen for the first three days.
What are the physical characteristics of a newborn baby?
When a baby is first born,
the skin is a dark red to purple color
. As the baby starts to breathe air, the color changes to red. This redness normally starts to fade in the first day. A baby's hands and feet may stay bluish in color for several days.
Which is a characteristic of the average newborn?
CHARACTERISTICS OF A NEWBORN. At birth,
the skin of a normal infant is purplish-red in color
, then within minutes, the skin pinks up. Blueness of the hands and feet is frequently seen during the early hours of life.
What is the characteristic of an infant?
Hearing begins
before birth, and is mature at birth. The infant prefers the human voice. Touch, taste, and smell, mature at birth; prefers sweet taste. Vision, the newborn infant can see within a range of 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters).
What is a normal neonate?
The body of a normal newborn is essentially cylindrical; head circumference slightly exceeds that of the chest. For a term baby, the average circumference of the
head is 33–35 cm
(13–14 inches), and the average circumference of the chest is 30–33 cm (12–13 inches).
What are five characteristics of a neonate?
- Soft spot: The anterior fontanel, a diamond-shaped soft area at the top of the skull. …
- Caput/Cephalohematoma: Fluid-filled swellings on the top of the scalp. …
- Ears: A pit or dimple in front of the ear is not uncommon. …
- Eyes: Eyelids may be swollen for the first three days.
Which parent determines skin color?
This means that the skin color a baby has depends on more than one gene. When a baby inherits skin color genes from both biological parents,
a mixture of different genes will
determine their skin color. Since a baby inherits half its genes from each biological parent, its physical appearance will be a mix of both.
What is the neonatal period?
The neonatal period is
the first 4 weeks of a child's life
. It is a time when changes are very rapid. Many critical events can occur in this period: Feeding patterns are established. Bonding between parents and infant begin.
What is the immediate care of a newborn?
Immediate care involves:
Drying the baby with warm towels or cloths
, while being placed on the mother's abdomen or in her arms. This mother-child skin-to-skin contact is important to maintain the baby's temperature, encourage bonding and expose the baby to the mother's skin bacteria.
What should a newborn baby look like?
Newborns
have big heads, no necks, short legs and big, distended torsos
. In short, they look like ET. Because newborns have spent an average of 12 hours squeezing through the birth canal, their head can often be a little pointy.
What is normal infant behavior?
It is also common for newborns to hiccup,
sneeze, yawn, spit up, burp, and gurgle
. Sometimes newborns cry for no reason at all. If this happens, try comforting your baby by rocking, singing, talking softly, or wrapping him or her in a blanket. Soon you will be able to tell what your baby needs by how he or she cries.
What are the four stages of infancy?
- Sensorimotor Stage: Birth through about 2 years. …
- Preoperational Stage: Ages 2 through 7. …
- Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 through 11. …
- Formal Operational Stage: Ages 11 and older.
Which are the 3 basic types of temperament in babies?
The three major types of temperament are
easy, slow-to-warm-up and difficult
. Goodness of fit is a term to describe how well a baby's temperament fits with the expectations and demands of the baby's environment.
Who is a high risk neonate?
A high-risk infant is
an infant that appears well but has a much greater chance than most infants of developing a clinical problem
, such as hypothermia, hypoglycaemia, apnoea, infection, etc. in the newborn period. High-risk infants appear clinically well on examination.
How do you assess a neonate?
One of the first assessments is
a baby's Apgar score
. At one minute and five minutes after birth, infants are checked for heart and respiratory rates, muscle tone, reflexes, and color. This helps identify babies that have difficulty breathing or have other problems that need further care.
How is baby skin color determined?
Skin color.
Some parents swear that the
ears
will clue you in — check out the tops of your baby's tiny ears, and you'll notice that they're darker than the rest of your newborn's skin. There's a good chance her skin will wind up being close to that color.
