A Japanese baby boy, weighing just 268 grams at birth, was discharged from hospital care and sent home after growing to a weight of 3,238 grams. This made the baby the tiniest baby boy to be sent home healthy and hearty.
The boy was born in August 2018 at 24 weeks post an emergency cesarean surgery. This was because doctors believed that his life could be in danger as his weight did not increase. At birth, he was so small that he could fit into a pair of cupped hands. He spent five months in the hospital in the intensive care unit until his weight increased to twelve times his original weight, he was feeding normally, and he became healthy.
According to Tokyo’s Keio University Hospital, the bay’s mother said, “I can only say I’m happy that he has grown this big because honestly, I wasn’t sure he could survive.”
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According to the Tiniest Babies registry managed by the University of Iowa, the previous record for the smallest baby boy was held by a German boy, who weighed just 274 grams at birth in 2009. The record for the smallest baby girl, again, was held by a German baby girl who weighed a mere 252 grams when born in 2015.
The survival rates of the smallest babies are higher for girls when compared with boys. While experts are unsure of the reason, it is believed that this might be because of the slower development of lungs in male babies.
We hope that this little boy grows into a healthy and happy adult!
