When a newborn screams, their face turns red and their wails echo, but their cheeks stay perfectly dry. Beneath that squishy exterior lies some truly bizarre survival biology.
They have around 300 bones
Adults have exactly 206 bones, but babies are born with about 300. Many of an infant's bones are made entirely or partly of soft cartilage, allowing their skeleton to remain flexible enough to pass through the birth canal. As the infant grows, these separate cartilage sections gradually fuse together and ossify into hard bone. This is why babies have large soft spots, called fontanelles, on their skulls—the rigid plates of bone have not yet knit together.
They cry without tears
Babies do not shed emotional tears until they are between two weeks and two months old. While their eyes produce basal moisture to keep the corneas protected, the tear ducts themselves are not fully developed enough to release large, visible drops.
Their grip is remarkably powerful
A newborn’s palmar grasp reflex is surprisingly strong. Stroking the palm of a baby’s hand causes their fingers to immediately clamp down. This primitive reflex is an evolutionary holdover from primate ancestors, originally allowing infants to cling tightly to a mother’s hair or back for transport. The grip is often strong enough that a baby can almost hold up their entire body weight.
They lack bony kneecaps
A newborn's kneecaps are composed of cartilage. This soft structure serves as built-in shock absorption for when the infant inevitably begins crawling and taking their first stumbling steps. The cartilage slowly ossifies into solid bone over the first few years of life, usually finishing by the time the child turns three or four.