I’m going to throw something out there that might be unpopular, but I’m of the firm belief that babies are weird AF. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate their cuteness or their delicate yet divine milky smell because even thinking about tiny babies leaves me making this face:
But still.
There are all kinds of weird facts about babies. Don’t believe me? Read on.
1. Newborns can't taste salt
Until around 4–5 months, salt is a mystery to tiny humans. Sweet, bitter, and sour, though, are all detectable from day one. Is it a coincidence they can't taste salt at the same time mom is sweating so much she could float an ocean liner? Science should look into that.
And while we're on the subject of taste…
They have two to three times as many taste buds as an adult (roughly 10,000 vs. an adult's 5,000) — so yes, those mashed carrots DO taste like death, hence the face.
2. They cry without tears for the first few weeks of their life
Just to clarify, they'll definitely cry for a significant portion of those first few weeks of their life. There just won't be tears running down those itty-bitty baby cheeks, because it takes several weeks for their tear ducts to fully develop.
3. Speaking of crying, babies cry with mom's accent
A study out of the University of Würzburg and the Max Planck Institute found that the melody pattern of a newborn's cry reflected the characteristics of their mother's native language. Researchers recorded 30 French and 30 German newborns and could tell the two groups apart just from their cry patterns — French babies' cries tended to rise in pitch, German babies' cries tended to fall. Cool, non?
4. They like to face right
Most babies have a head-turning preference. In the classic study on this, 65% of newborns preferred turning their heads to the right, while only 15% showed a distinct preference for the left (the rest showed no clear preference).
5. Newborns can recognize mom's voice from just one syllable
Superpower or annoying factoid that will haunt you in a few years when they ignore everything you say? I'll let you be the judge. (This builds on classic research showing newborns prefer their mother's voice over a stranger's within days of birth — DeCasper & Fifer's foundational 1980 study in Science — though the "just one syllable" framing is more of a popular simplification than an exact figure from a single study.)
6. They are hormonal
Leftover hormones from mom can cause some bizarre (but totally normal) newborn surprises. Female babies can have bloody discharge (called pseudomenstruation), and some female AND male babies can lactate ("witch's milk"). Give 'em a couple weeks and those hormones will settle down.
7. About 4.2–4.3 babies are born worldwide every second
This isn't so much a weird fact as it is just downright surprising when you run the numbers. Based on UN estimates of roughly 134–140 million births per year, that works out to about 4.2–4.3 births per second globally — slightly lower than the "4.5" figure sometimes quoted, but the same jaw-dropping ballpark. (Happy birthday to the 4-ish babies born while you read that fact.)
8. Babies can remember songs they heard in utero for up to 4 months
Baby not sleeping? Try pumping up the jams to whatever was your go-to musical crutch during your pregnancy. Just remember that if you listened with ear buds, it ain't gonna help. This tracks with research on prenatal auditory memory (fetuses can hear and start memorizing sounds by the last trimester), though the specific "4 months" retention window is a commonly cited figure rather than a single definitive number everyone agrees on.
9. Babies don't have kneecaps
Now before you feel the urge to see if your baby's legs will bend in ungodly angles, stop. They have cartilage that will eventually turn into kneecaps, but true bony kneecaps don't fully form until sometime between about 6 months and a few years of age. Until then, they're rockin' soft, cartilaginous knees.
10. Some babies can sleep with their eyes open
Nocturnal lagophthalmos is the sciency name for sleeping with your eyes open. Add it to the list of things babies do that are totally normal but also pretty kooky dook when compared to their older counterparts.
11. They breathe and swallow at the same time (sort of)
Thanks to a newborn's high larynx position, air and milk travel through largely separate channels in the throat, letting them suck, swallow, and breathe in extremely fast, tightly coordinated succession. There's still a tiny, split-second pause in breathing with each swallow, known as "swallowing apnea," but it's about as close to true multitasking as the human body gets. As babies grow, the larynx gradually moves lower into the throat, which is part of why the rest of us lose even that rapid-fire coordination and have to fully stop breathing to swallow.
Are there any other weird facts about babies that we should know about?
Let us know in the comments below!
Our next reco: Just 16 Adorable Babies With Creepy Teeth
Sources
- Taste buds: NIH — "The Development of Healthy Eating and Food Pleasure in Infancy," PubMed
- Crying with mom's accent: Mampe, B., Friederici, A.D., Christophe, A., & Wermke, K. (2009). "Newborns' Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language." Current Biology, via ScienceDirect
- Head-turning preference: Michel, G.F. (1981). "Right-Handedness: A Consequence of Infant Supine Head-Orientation Preference?" Science, 212(4495)
- Recognizing mom's voice: DeCasper, A.J. & Fifer, W.P. (1980). "Of Human Bonding: Newborns Prefer Their Mothers' Voices." Science, 208(4448)
- Babies born per second worldwide: UN World Population Prospects data, as reported by worldstats.io and LiveHumans population counter
- Breathing and swallowing at the same time: Contemporary Pediatrics — "Can newborns breathe and swallow at the same time?"
Update August 2026
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