Naani and Daadi Say...
(Old Wives Tales)
(Old Wives Tales)
If an expecting mother craves spicy chaat, salty snacks, or pickles (achar), folk tradition predicts she is having a _____. If she craves mithai or chocolates, she is having ____.
What is a boy? What is a girl?
A baby sheep.
What is a lamb?
Because a newborn's neck muscles are too weak to support their disproportionately large head, safety standards mandate that infant car seats must face in this directional position.
What is rear-facing (or backward)?
In Disney’s 1941 animated classic, a stork delivers a giant-eared newborn pachyderm named Jumbo Jr. to his mother, who quickly gives him this famous nickname.
What is Dumbo?
In A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, Kanga carries her playful baby boy in her pouch, giving him this short 3-letter name.
Who is Roo?
This magical nut is encouraged to be eaten during pregnancy
What is an almond?
A baby horse.
What is a foal?
Pediatricians advise halting this womb-mimicking practice at the first sign of rolling to prevent suffocation, as well as to decrease the risk of hip dysplasia.
What is swaddling?
In elephant herds, female relatives help raise, protect, and herd the calves in a social structure led exclusively by this elder female figure.
Who is the Matriarch?
In Stephenie Meyer’s 2008 novel Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward give their newborn hybrid daughter a portmanteau name by combining the first names of these two maternal figures.
Who are Renée and Esme?
Mothers-to-be sip warm milk with this costly spice to calm anxiety and give the baby a vibrant, healthy glow.
What is saffron (zafran)?
A baby koala or kangaroo.
What is a joey?
This organ in a newborn baby is disproportionately large, making up about 10% of their total body weight at birth (compared to 2% in adults).
What is the liver?
Because elephant calves lack muscle control over their trunks for their first few months, they self-soothe by doing this.
What is sucking their trunk?
Leonie Swann borrowed a classic line from this nursery rhyme to title Three Bags Full, her bestselling mystery novel about a flock of sheep solving their shepherd's murder.
What is "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep"?
This stain-prone red juice builds healthy blood and guarantees a baby with extra rosy cheeks.
What is pomegranate juice (anar ka juice)?
A baby seahorse.
What is a fry?
Pediatricians cap nursery sound machines at 50 decibels for safety, even though the inner ear experiences sound inside the womb at this much louder range.
What is 80 to 90 decibels?
Holding the record for any land mammal, a mother elephant carries her calf for this impressive length of time.
What is 22 months?
In The Jungle Book, Mowgli marches alongside a cute, clumsy baby elephant named Junior, who is the son of this stern British-accented colonel.
Who is Colonel Hathi?
During a solar or lunar eclipse, an expecting mother is strictly warned not to use these household tools to avoid the baby being born with a birthmark or cleft lip.
What are sharp objects (knives, scissors, or needles)?
A baby platypus.
What is a puggle?
Adults have 206 bones, but newborns are born with approximately this many bones before several fuse together during growth.
What is ~300 (accept 270–300)?
While human infants are born without kneecaps, baby elephants are born with these temporary teeth that fall out around age two.
What are milk tusks?
In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge experiences a change of heart after witnessing the fragile health of this young boy.
Who is Tiny Tim?