20 Important Facts About Parenting
The next time you’re at one of those big box stores and your 2-year-old starts screaming and your fellow customers give you a scornful look, tell them to be quiet and mind their own business. Then wow them with these 20 random facts about parenting from Lynch Ford Chevrolet:
Q: What is the most popular month for having babies?
A: More babies are born in July than any other month, which means that in October...
Q: How much food does a baby eat?
A: In its first year of eating solid food, a baby consumes approximately 15 pounds of baby cereal. How that produces 387 pounds of poop is a scientific mystery. Just kidding.
Q: How long does it take to change a baby’s diaper?
A: Men average one minute thirty-six seconds to change a diaper. It takes women two minutes and five seconds.
Q: What determines a baby’s gender?
A: The male’s contribution to reproduction determines the sex of the child, since men have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome, while women only have X chromosomes. Whichever chromosome the child picks up from the father will determine its gender.
Q: Just how child resistant are child resistant bottles?
A: Thousands of children are taken to the hospital for ingesting medicines and other harmful substances from child resistant containers. In an unrelated note, thousands of adults hurl bottles across the room because they’re unable to open child resistant containers.
Q: Should I worry about my child’s weight?
A: Yes. Overweight children are five times more likely to have a heart attack before the age of 65.
Q: When can you tell if your child is right-handed or left-handed?
A: Doctors have observed babies favoring one hand over the other by the tenth-week of the gestation period.
Q: How many children live without their biological fathers in the United States?
A: Approximately 24 million.
Q: What are the odds of a mother giving birth to twins?
A: 33 to 1
Q: What are the odds of having triplets or other multiple births?
A: 539 to 1
Q: How long does it take a baby to recognize its father’s voice?
A: 14 days. This knowledge is based on experience, not genetics, and therefore does not hold up in court as a paternity test.
Q: How many diapers does the average child go through between birth and potty-training?
A: The average ranges between 5,000 and 7,000 diapers.
Q: How many years does it take a diaper to decompose?
A: Approximately 500 years.
Q: Other than pooping sixteen times a day and screaming at various pitches, what can a baby do that an adult can’t?
A: A baby can breathe and swallow at the same time.
Q:Until when should a baby be given a sponge bath?
A: A baby should be given a sponge bath up until the umbilical cord falls off.
Q: How many steps does the average toddler take in a minute?
A: 176, 175 of which cause stress to their parents.
Q: How far in advance should an expectant mother pack her bag for the hospital?
A: According to Parenting magazine, four months, which is about how long it’ll take you to forget to pack a toothbrush.
Q: What percentage of babies arrive on their due date?
A: 3-4%
Q: What body parts are babies not born with?
A: Babies are not born with knee caps. They don’t seem to mind.
Q: Not counting medical expenses, how much does a baby cost in the first year?
A: $7,000.