After 10 months of pregnancy, you finally meet the baby in your belly. From this moment on, your actual sight is completely drawn away from him. Why does he purr a lot in his throat? Why does he shake in the cold? Is he sneezing because he has a cold? Don’t worry, there are many things about your new baby that may seem unusual, but are in fact perfectly normal. Why is he shaking unintentionally? Jump reaction: newborns often sleep after the local muscle twitching, especially fingers or toes will be gently trembling, or by the slightest stimulus such as bright light, sound or vibration, will show hands upward open, and then quickly retracted, and sometimes accompanied by crying “jump” reaction. This is due to the incomplete development of the newborn’s nervous system, at this time, as long as the mother gently press any part of the baby’s body, you can make him quiet. This reaction often occurs in the newborn, and then gradually ease, and disappeared in about 4 months. If your baby develops symptoms such as staring and trembling of both eyes, or constant blinking, repeated chewing and sucking movements of the mouth, irregular breathing, bruising of the skin and twitching of the facial muscles, he should be sent to the doctor for diagnosis. What is fencing reflex? When the baby’s head is turned to one side, the arm and leg on the same side are straightened and the arm and leg on the other side are bent (like a fencing position), which is a normal primitive reflex of the immature nervous system. This manifestation usually disappears after 4 months, and normal reactions such as chin and lower lip trembling may also occur. Nerve sensitivity or trembling of the arms and legs when crying is also normal in newborns and usually disappears after 1 to 2 months. If the nervous sensitivity becomes severe or persists when your baby is quiet, you need to contact your doctor. Why is there a strange noise in the throat? Throat murmur: Air passing through normal saliva or counter-flow milk makes a throat murmur, which is more noticeable when the baby is asleep. It gets better when the newborn gradually learns to swallow more frequently. Nasal murmur: It is usually caused by dry mucus in the nasal passages rather than a cold. Nasal blockage or poor ventilation can also affect the baby’s ability to eat. Therefore, the nasal passages need to be cleared for newborns to moisten the dry mucus so that it can be sneezed out. It is recommended to clean the nostrils with warm water, or you can prepare your own nasal saline solution: just add 1/2 teaspoon of table salt to a cup (240 ml) of warm water. Wash with a drop of water at a time, one side of the nostril at a time, and do this several times. A nasal aspirator can be used, but do not use cotton swabs as they may injure the nasal passages. Be careful to avoid letting your newborn inhale cigarette smoke, as this can cause nasal obstruction or sneezing. It is also important to reduce lint, dust, or any strong odors in the indoor air. If cleaning the nasal passages does not work and your baby’s breathing becomes difficult, contact your doctor as soon as possible. Is sneezing a cold? Occasional sneezing in newborn babies is not a cold because the blood flow in the nasal cavity of newborn babies is more vigorous, and the nasal cavity is small and short, so if there are tiny substances such as cotton wool, lint or dust from outside, they will stimulate the nasal mucosa and cause sneezing, which can be regarded as a way for the babies to clean up the nasal cavity on their own. Suddenly encountering cold air will also cause sneezing. Unless the baby already has a runny nose, parents do not need to worry or let the baby take cold medicine. Why is breathing so fast? Newborn babies’ breathing movements are superficial and irregular, with a rapid respiratory rate. In the first 2 weeks of life, the respiratory rate is about 40 times a minute or more, and some newborns may breathe up to 80 times a minute, which is normal. This is due to the newborn intercostal muscles are relatively soft, nasopharyngeal and tracheal narrowness, alveolar compliance is poor, because the respiratory movement is mainly rely on the elevation of the transverse septal muscles, so the newborn abdominal respiration is dominated by thoracic respiration is weak. The respiratory rate of newborns is faster because the volume of each exhalation and inhalation is small, which is not enough to supply the body’s needs, which is a normal physiological phenomenon. If a premature baby or a baby with poorly developed lungs turns blue due to lack of oxygen, you can stimulate the baby to cry to encourage the alveoli to open up and increase the volume of air exchange. If your baby’s breathing becomes difficult and the interval between breaths is greater than 10 seconds, contact your doctor. Transient Shortness of Breath Sometimes, newborns experience rapid, gradually deepening breaths to expand their lung capacity. If this subsides within a minute, it is normal. Teeter-totter breathing Breathing in which the chest is concave when the abdomen bulges is due to the fact that some newborns have a soft chest cavity that tends to be depressed by suction as the diaphragm moves downward. Also, yawning or intermittent sighs are movements that newborns make to open their lungs. These are normal. Are hiccups due to gastrointestinal problems? Usually hiccups are caused by too much food or a small portion of acid that irritates the lower esophagus, which is cleared up by giving the baby a few sips of water. This is an extremely common phenomenon, and newborns have more hiccups and farts than adults because their nervous systems are not yet fully developed. If your baby continues to have hiccups for some time, you can feed your baby some warm water to stop the hiccups. Newborns will roll over during sleep transitions, occasionally twitching, gurgling in the throat, and the sound of food passing through the gastrointestinal tract in the stomach; during light sleep, babies will whimper, moan, or make other strange noises, all of which are normal. Shedding skin like a snake? Almost all newborn babies will have peeling skin, whether it’s light flaking or snake-like peeling, as long as the baby’s diet and sleep are fine, it’s normal. This is because the upper layer of the newborn’s skin, the stratum corneum, is not fully developed and can easily fall off. In addition, the basement membrane connecting the epidermis and the dermis is not developed in newborns, so that the epidermis and dermis are not connected closely enough, resulting in increased chances of epidermal shedding. If the peeling is combined with other symptoms such as redness, swelling or blisters, it may be a medical condition that requires medical attention. This kind of peeling phenomenon may occur all over the body, but the limbs, behind the ears is most obvious, as long as in the bath to let it fall off naturally, without special protective measures or forced to tear off the peeling skin. Why do I lose weight when I am still feeding? Newborns tend to lose weight one week after birth. This is because the baby’s food intake is not yet on the right track, coupled with the daily discharge of urine and feces, respiration and skin discharge of water not visible to the naked eye, etc., so that the body is temporarily out of balance, resulting in a loss of body weight in the first 3 to 4 days after birth. The amount of weight loss may be as much as 10% of the birth weight, but as the baby gradually adapts, the weight will be regained after 8 or 9 days. If the weight does not return after 10 days, you should seek medical advice. Small white spots on the gums of the newborn’s teeth or near the midline of the palate often have small, milky white particles with a smooth surface and varying numbers. Fewer may be 1 ~ 2, more may have dozens of, this is because when the embryonic development of 6 weeks, the oral mucosa epithelial cells began to proliferate and thicken the formation of the dental plate, the most primitive tissue for the development of teeth. Cells on the dental plate continue to proliferate, forming a tooth bud at regular intervals and developing into tooth germs so that teeth can be formed in the future; when the tooth germs reach a certain stage of development, they will break and be pushed to the surface of the dental bed, which is commonly known as “horse teeth” or “plate teeth”. These small, milky-white particles are usually found on the surface of the dentition. These small milky white particles can be resorbed by themselves in about 2 weeks, do not pick them with a needle or wipe them with a cloth, in order to avoid damaging the mucous membrane and causing infections.