HealthPartners - Preparing for childbirth

What New Babies Look Like Babies come into the world wet, tiny, and sometimes looking different than you expected. What is amazing is how much your baby’s appearance will change in the hours and days after birth.

COLOR

EYES

MILIA

Newborns can be very alert, turning their head toward different sounds even though they can see almost 12 inches away. A baby’s eyes may be gray-blue or brown at birth. Babies with dark skin are usually born with dark eyes. You will know their final eye color in about 9 to 12 months. If your baby’s eyes occasionally cross, this is normal and should stop in 3 to 4 months. Red spots in the whites of your baby’s eyes are also normal and will disappear in 1 to 2 weeks.

Your baby’s skin color will look bluish gray at birth. This is normal. As they begin to breathe and oxygen circulates in their bloodstream, their skin, lips, mucous membranes, and nail beds will become pinker. Their hands and feet may take a few days to turn pink.

Your baby’s nose may look flat or have small, white, pimplelike bumps called milia on it. Milia can also appear on the baby’s cheeks and forehead. Milia is different from baby acne. Both result from hormones still circulating in the baby’s body, but baby acne produces red pimples. Don’t squeeze or pick at any skin bumps. Keeping your baby’s skin clean may help, although both milia and baby acne will eventually go away on their own.

There are two soft spots called fontanelles on your baby’s head where the skull bones will eventually grow together. One is at the top and one is at the back of the baby’s head. The soft spots will close in about 2 to 18 months.

POSTERIOR FONTANELLE

HEAD SHAPE (MOLDING)

ANTERIOR FONTANELLE

When a baby is born, the plates of their skull bones are not fused together. This allows the baby’s head to change shape as it moves through the birth canal and makes room for their rapidly growing brain. Your baby’s head may also look out of shape, called “ molding .” The molding will correct itself in a few days.

SOFT SPOTS

82 Your Guide to Labor and Birth