Читать книгу Infants and Children in Context - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 177

The average newborn is about 20 inches long and weighs about 7½ pounds. Boys tend to be slightly longer and heavier than girls. Newborns have distinctive features, including a large head (about one-quarter of body length) that is often long and misshapen from passing through the birth canal. The newborn’s skull bones are not yet fused—and will not be until about 18 months of age—permitting the bones to move and the head to mold to the birth canal, easing its passage. A healthy newborn is red-skinned and wrinkly at birth; skin that is bluish in color indicates that the newborn has experienced oxygen deprivation. Some babies emerge covered with lanugo, the fuzzy hair that protects the skin in the womb; for other babies, the lanugo falls off prior to birth. The newborn’s body is covered with vernix caseosa, a white waxy substance that protects against infection; this dries up within the first few days. Although many hospital staff wash the vernix caseosa away after birth, research suggests that it is a naturally occurring barrier to infection and should be retained at birth (Jha et al., 2015).