Could you have recognized your young baby in a room full of other newborns?

In My Humble Opinion
61

This is an interesting question. Now, keep in mind that I am one of those people with poor facial recognition skills. I pretty much have to have met someone more than once to be able to recognize them by face alone. More than twice, really. Or even three or four times. I just don’t have a good ‘facial memory’, whatever that’s called. I always said that I would be the absolute worst witness for a crime, 'cuz I would probably be no help at all …

That said, I would have recognized my daughter after first sight. I was helped by the fact that she was five weeks early and tiny (five pounds) as well as having a head of dark hair and distinctive (well, to me anyway) facial features. I could have picked her out of a crowd of babies easily.

Fifteen years later, my son was born. He was four weeks early, not quite so small (six pounds) and the most generic looking baby I have ever seen! He had eye colored eyes, hair colored hair (and not much of it!) and looked pretty much like every other caucasian child ever born.

This did not change as he grew older. Although I did not have to put him into day care until he was three, I found that to me he looked very much like every other little boy in the day care facility. It actually got embarrassing for me. I would walk into the day care room to pick him up (and because he was a very independent and outgoing child, he was always absorbed in some activity and not one to immediately run to mom!) and would hesitate…

I would take a few steps into the room and pause, my eyes darting about frantically trying to remember how I’d dressed him that morning as I noticed at least half a dozen boychicks that could, maybe? be my child? More than once I would start to walk confidently toward a child, only to realize after a few steps…no, not right! wrong kid!

It’s not a happy memory for me. I felt guilty that I could not immediately recognize my own child. And there was certainly no underlying psychological ‘rejection’ factors going on - my son was by far the easier child, the more outgoing, the more fun to be with - if it could be said that I favored one child over the other, he would have been the one in favor.

Well, that was then and this is now. I pretty much can recognize him now. Of course, he’s 22 years old now! I’m pretty sure I could pick him out of a crowd … :confused:

62

Oh, yes; google it.

63

When my daughter was born, my husband and I went to the nursery to admire our work and as we were standing there cooing over one of the infants, we simultaneously figured out that it wasn’t her and moved one step to the right, found ours, and laughed.

64

In the case of my most recent babies (not biologically my own, I haven’t had any), my Nephew and Niece, it would be extra easy because they both had super-wide faces; both of them stared at everything with super-open eyes, the Nephew while moving a lot, the Niece without moving. The Bros would have been harder (specially if one of the Ari Bros* had been there), but still, we did find them in the nursery room quite easily. Those rooms don’t even exist any more, in Spain.

The Aris are three brothers, born so close apart they’re almost Irish triplets, who happen to be identical not just to each other but also to Middlebro. We know two other guys who can easily be mistaken for the others, making this a set of 6 guys born within 3 years and who can easily be mistaken for each other even in a good light. One time, my Bros and the Aris were with some friends and one of the friends remarked to Middlebro “it’s scary, seeing y’all together it looks like the four of you are brothers and your real brother is your cousin or somesuch”.

65

I was able to pick my Bug out of a sea of newborns in the nursery about a day and a half after she was born (she’d been with us in the room up 'til then), although to be fair all the other kids were either white or black, and she’s not. But what shocked me was that, from the very beginnig, I could tell which of the thousand cries were hers from down the hall.

–Cliffy

66

Oh, yeah…HUGE feet on the first one…in fact, he’s 11 and is already wearing my shoe size (11.5). The second boy had a little stork bite on his forehead, and our daughter was born at home, so N/A. :smiley: But more than that, once you get past the superficial, Winston Churchill thing, it’s actually not that hard to distinguish, usually.

67

What an utterly fabulous idea for a TV game show.

“Introducing ‘Who’s That Baby?’, a wacky contest in which parents attempt to recognize their newborn infants in a room filled with other newborns. Participants get 60 seconds to pick out their child while the audience lays bets on the outcome. Parents who successfully choose their baby win valuable prizes, while losers have to go home with the wrong infant!”

Who’s that baby (who’s that baby)
Squalling baby (who’s that baby)
Cute widdle baby (who’s that baby)
Real fine baby (who’s that baby)
Hear me callin’ out to you
'Cause it’s all that I can do
It’s got its momma’s eyes, that’s true
You can look but don’t touch that baby

I wouldn’t miss an episode.

68

I answered assuming that I had already seen my kid. Once he was born and I saw him, it was easy to pick him out in the baby ward later that day.