Lively babes
Let's figure out what small means. A baby's weight at birth is more than 2.5 kg - normal weight. Pediatricians do not consider babies weighing 2.5–2.7 kg small. A full-term newborn with this weight does not need any special nutrition, wrapping, or a hot heated room. Sometimes parents want to feed their miniature baby, to quickly see how plump the cheeks have become, wrinkles have appeared on the thick legs... They begin to give the baby a little more food than necessary. The result is regurgitation. There is no need to overfeed your mini-baby. Yes, he eats a little less milk or formula than a large baby, but he has enough. It's just a different constitution. In parents, grandmothers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who are also probably of fragile build. He will eat his quota, but develop normally, will catch up with his peers in all respects, and after a year may weigh no less than them.
But children who were born weighing less than 2.5 kg already require closer attention from doctors and special care. Pediatricians call such babies low birth weight.
Reasons for the birth of very small children:
- prematurity,
- malnutrition,
- multiple pregnancy.
Prematurity is not a death sentence
The main problem of premature babies is not low weight at all, but the immaturity of some body systems - respiratory, thermoregulatory... They are designed by nature to live while in their mother’s tummy, to develop further, and their weight is quite normal for intrauterine life. And then suddenly bad luck: something forced him to be born ahead of schedule.
Premature babies are also divided into those with a very low weight - less than 1.5 kg, and those with an extremely low weight - less than 1 kg. Of course, such babies are not born often, they constitute 0.4% and 0.2% of all premature babies. Previously, it seemed that if a child was born weighing only 1 kg, it would be a disaster! How to get it out? Now, according to the WHO classification, a fetus born alive after 22 weeks of intrauterine development and weighing more than 500 g (!) is considered a child who can and should be nursed. Now both society and doctors have a different psychological attitude, they believe that from a newborn weighing 1–1.2 kg it is possible to raise a healthy child and he will be mentally healthy.
Premature babies initially require special care, they are placed in special hospitals, but if the baby is discharged home, it means that he can live in normal conditions, like all babies, he can breathe, drink and eat, and he must be fed like an ordinary baby.
The fact that prematurity is not a death sentence and that there were premature people among famous people has probably already been heard by everyone. Goethe and Napoleon were premature... Low birth weight did not become an obstacle to longevity, talent, or happiness.
Sometimes babies are born on time, and their height is quite normal for newborns, and their weight is very small - 1.3–1.5 kg. This is malnutrition. It is caused by my mother's illness. Such children appear in women with cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diseases of the endocrine system... Thin, long, they continue to gain weight poorly, although nutritionists have created special food products for them, enriched with proteins, fats, and vitamins. They may remain small for the rest of their lives, but they will develop well.
Hypotrophy in a baby can also be caused by bad habits of the mother. If a woman smokes during pregnancy, the fetus is constantly poisoned and the child is born small.
Children from multiple pregnancies are also born small, and they are born earlier because they are cramped in their mother’s womb. They are cared for in the same way as premature babies. And they grow up to be quite healthy twins and triplets.
Scientists have explained why more boys are born
Stand in a circle or triangle
Infants remember the existence of objects, even if they do not see them, but the details of their appearance are not stored in the brain: a triangle in this description... →
From school biology textbooks, everyone knows that at conception the probability of forming a female or male embryo is related as one to alone. The sex of the unborn child depends on which type of sperm - containing an X chromosome or a Y chromosome - fertilizes the woman's egg. At the same time, biologists argue that the number of both types of sperm produced in a man’s body is the same, which means that they really have an equal chance of playing a decisive role in determining the sex of the child.
Nevertheless, demographers around the world say:
in fact, more boys are born than girls, and scientists claim that this trend formed around the same time as the emergence of the species Homo sapiens.
However, it cannot be assumed that such a picture is due to the greater mortality of female embryos: medical statistics show that during pregnancy - at least in its later stages - it is male embryos that die more often.
“Gene architecture” of school performance
Academic success depends on genetics, British and Russian scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing the results of a large-scale project on... →
These observations allowed the researchers to conclude that since male embryos are less viable, their survival rate at the end of pregnancy still remains higher, which means that at conception they should significantly predominate over female ones. Today, world statistics show that
For every 100 girls, an average of 105 boys are born (with variations in different countries from 104 to 107). It turns out that at conception the inequality should be even greater.
This pattern may not hold true, for example, in countries where people are moving to new fertility patterns and maternal age is gradually increasing. Demographers and doctors note that as a woman ages, the chances of male embryos surviving become even smaller and the average number of girls born increases.
In Asian countries such as China or India, so-called selective abortions—termination of pregnancies based on the sex of the child—are still common, as families strive to have as many sons as possible. American feminist Anne Warren even coined a special term to refer to this phenomenon - “gendercide”. The 2010 census results in China showed that for every 100 girls, 118 boys are born in the country.
According to statistical forecasts, by 2020–2030, every fifth Chinese man will be left without a wife.
This generation of forced bachelors, according to experts, could serve as a potential source of social instability.
Children wince from cigarettes
Every time expectant mothers take a drag from a cigarette, they worry their children.
And in response, they unequivocally wince and twitch their hands in the womb, they found out... → But even the latest demographic trends could not answer the question: why, contrary to all the laws of biology, during conception, male embryos are formed more often than female ones? A group of British and American scientists led by Stephen Orzack from the Fresh Pond Research Institute (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) managed to uncover all the secrets of embryo formation and their further development, and at the same time refute some postulates of demography. An article dedicated to the work of the researchers was published
in the journal PNAS.
Stephen Orzack's team analyzed information on children conceived in the United States, Canada and several other European countries from 1995 to 2004. Scientists paid attention not only to natural pregnancies (in this case, the sex of the child was determined on the 3rd–6th day after conception using amniocentesis - analysis of amniotic fluid), but also to pregnancies formed using in vitro fertilization. The researchers also took into account data on miscarriages and induced pregnancies.
In total, scientists collected information on approximately 31 million embryos, which is an absolute record in studies of this kind.
Determining the sex of a child at the earliest stages - during the first week of pregnancy - showed that, in fact, the laws of biology are not violated: the number of male and female embryos at conception actually turned out to be the same. The idea that male embryos are not viable has also been refuted. In fact, boys are more likely to die only during the first one to two weeks of pregnancy and at 28–35 weeks. During the rest of the period, the mortality rate of female embryos is much higher.
Thus, scientists managed to refute two postulates of modern demography at once: about gender disproportion at conception and about the poor health of male embryos.
The researchers do not exclude that the results of their work will force demographers to reconsider some provisions of their science.
104 years have flown by in 17 years
Hayley Okins, a teenager “with the body of a 104-year-old woman”, one of the most famous people in the world with progeria, has died in the UK... →
Despite the fact that researchers were able to prove the effectiveness of the laws of biology, one should not think that future parents cannot increase the likelihood of conceiving a boy or girl. Thus, obstetrician-gynecologist of the highest qualification category Georgy Mestergazi notes that the activity of sperm depends on whether they are “male” or “female”. “Female” X sperm can be compared to long-distance runners: they are larger, more durable, move slower and can travel through the fallopian tubes for a fairly long period of time, and then “wait” for ovulation for about 72 hours.
But Y-sperm are more like sprinters who move quickly and over short distances: they have a better chance of fertilizing an egg if they are close to it. It turns out that the likelihood of conceiving a son or daughter may change depending on where the ejaculation occurred: near the cervix or vagina. Moreover, “male” and “female” sperm feel differently in different environments: the former favors an alkaline environment, the latter an acidic one.
Giants' Problems
But doctors are not very happy about large children, those who weigh more than 4 kg at birth.
They are harder to give birth, that's understandable. They more often receive birth injuries: collarbone fractures, hematomas, paralysis... Therefore, when doctors perform an ultrasound on a pregnant woman and see a large fetus, they often offer her a caesarean section.
But the most important thing is that large children are born to sick mothers. It happens, of course, that a baby is big simply because his dad is two meters tall, and his mother is not small. But such a reason for high weight is rare. But a hero with a mother with diabetes, including a mother who does not yet know about her illness, is the rule. And each subsequent child of this mother will be larger and larger. And there is a great danger that these children will also develop diabetes.
So families where there are people suffering from this disease should definitely consult a pregnant woman with an endocrinologist. She will undergo special treatment so that the baby is not born too large and is not harmed during intrauterine development.
Large babies take longer to adapt after birth. Usually, in the first three days, at most five days, the cardiovascular system begins to function rhythmically, the pulse evens out, breathing becomes established - without shortness of breath, without signs of apnea, the gastrointestinal tract enters its rhythm... And in large ones, adaptation can last for two weeks.
But then the hero arrived home from the maternity hospital. How to feed him now? He should eat the same amount of food as an average child. But the hero can gain more weight than the average child.
And such a baby should definitely be shown to an endocrinologist. We have well-equipped children's centers where a baby can be tested for any endocrine pathology.
The sequence of taking measurements from a child's figure.
For horizontal measurements, see figure number 1. We take the measurements of the half girth and width in full, and write them down in half size.
We start with the first measurement - half neck circumference ( Posh
). We measure it along the line of the base of the neck, above the seventh cervical vertebra and the jugular fossa.
Measure the floor circumference of the chest ( Pog
) film in full and record at half size. We measure around the child's body with a centimeter.
We start from the back, through the armpits to the front, and draw the tape along the most protruding points of the chest and shoulder blades.
Semi waist ( Sweat
). In young children, it is usually difficult to determine the waistline.
To find the waist, we do the following: tie a ribbon in the deepest place, around the expected waist, and ask the child to move a little: let him walk, bend over, sit on a chair. After these movements, the braid itself will be correctly positioned at the waist line. This measurement must be taken in full and recorded in half size. And for small or plump children, we measure this measurement along the protruding part of the abdomen.
- - Half hip circumference (Hob).
We measure around the body at the most convex places on the sides of the hip line, behind, through the buttocks, and at the same time take into account the protrusion in front. - — Chest width (Wg)
. The centimeter should pass above the measured floor circumference of the chest (Pog) and be located between the front corners of the armpits. - — Back width (Ws)
. Measured along the line of the shoulder blades, between the back corners of the armpits.
We remove the girths and write them down completely.
- — head grip (Og)
Measure around the head at the widest point with a centimeter. This measurement is needed for sewing hats (hats or caps). - — Knee circumference (Approx)
. Around the leg, through the center of the kneecap. - — Ankle circumference (Osch)
. Measured at the bottom of the leg around the narrowest part. - — Hip circumference (About)
. Measured under the groin around the top of the leg across the widest part. - — Wrist circumference (Oz)
. We measure along the wrist where the arm meets the hand. - — Thigh height (Wb
). See Figure 1. Film and record in full. We measure from the side from the waist line to the horizontal measurement along the hip line. - — Armhole length (Dpr)
. See Figure 1. From the shoulder point (the point of contact between the base of the neck and the shoulder) down vertically to the half-chest girth measurement (Pog). Filmed and recorded in full
Vertical measurements (lengths) are taken and recorded in full. See picture number 2.
- height in
centimeters from the highest point on the head, along the back to the floor or to the base of the legs. We take measurements without shoes. Measuring height is usually necessary to correctly determine children's clothing sizes, as well as to determine the physique of a child's figure. - — Front length to waist (Dpt)
. We take this measurement in the center of the front from the jugular fossa down to the waist line. - — Back length to waist (Dst)
. At the back we place the tape in the middle of the back, from the tubercle of the seventh cervical vertebra down to the waist. - — Shoulder length (Dpl)
. Cancel from the point where the shoulder and neck meet, in the middle of the slope, to the point where the shoulder joins the arm or to the point where the sleeve is sewn in. - — Sleeve length (Dr)
. A measurement is taken from the junction of the shoulder with the arm, to the base of the hand. The arm should be slightly bent. Figure 2. - — Knee length (Dk)
. From the side from the waist to the middle of the kneecap. - — Step length (Lsh).
On the inside of the leg from the groin to the floor. Legs slightly apart. - — Product length (Di)
.
Length measurements for the shoulder piece of a dress or shirt ( Drub
): Measured, from the back across the middle of the back, from the seventh cervical spine down.
And in front from the jugular fossa down to the desired length. For a belt product, the barrel length ( Db
) is measured: from the side of the waist down in a straight line, to the desired length of the intended product (skirt length (
Du
), trouser length (
Dbr
)). look at picture number 2.
If the child is very small and it is difficult to take measurements from him, then you can use the table.
Important
► On average, larger children are born in Scandinavia, smaller ones in Africa.
► The average weight of boys (3200–3500 g) is slightly higher than that of girls (3000–3250 g).
► First-born children are usually born smaller than second and third children in the family. Although if parents and children are healthy, the differences in grams and centimeters may be barely noticeable.
► Accelerators are already, at birth, larger in weight and height than children of the generation that was not affected by acceleration.
