# Newborns on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137 "2004-07-14T21:02:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Richard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Richard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/1 "2004-07-14T21:02:57Z")
I have seen several dramas on TV recently in which a baby is born. They show some very realistic newborn babies. Does anybody know if these are actually real babies, or if not, how they make them look so realistic? If they are real, how do they manage to do it? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/2 "2004-07-14T22:10:38Z")
The traditional way has been to get a baby a few weeks old and smear them with goo (I’ve heard jelly is often used) Having held three newborns in my arms, I have to say that no baby born on a drama or sitcom is anywhere near as ugly as the ones in real life. Compare reality show footage with what you see on a drama. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/3 "2004-07-14T22:18:38Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > The traditional way has been to get a baby a few weeks old and smear them with goo (I’ve heard jelly is often used) Yes, I remember reading somewhere that cream cheese and jelly are used for that fresh-from-mom look. So much for that morning bagel! And yes, they use babies that are a couple of weeks old. On shows like _ER_, sometimes dummies are used when they show them doing procedures on the baby. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/4 "2004-07-14T22:21:27Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > The traditional way has been to get a baby a few weeks old and smear them with goo (I’ve heard jelly is often used) I’d assume petroleum jelly. > [@](#): > > Having held three newborns in my arms, I have to say that no baby born on a drama or sitcom is anywhere near as ugly as the ones in real life. Compare reality show footage with what you see on a drama. Ah, yes, the little secret of birth: We’re all born ugly, and some of us remain so. 😃 It’s amazing that an animal could consider its own young ugly at any stage of the development process, but humans flesh out and get ultra-mega-cute rather quickly. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/5 "2004-07-15T01:44:56Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Having held three newborns in my arms, I have to say that no baby born on a drama or sitcom is anywhere near as ugly as the ones in real life. Compare reality show footage with what you see on a drama. Well, I’ve held 2 newborns in my arms and they were awfully darn cute. Favoritism aside, they were definitely: nicely pink, no blood or other strange liquids, not noticably wrinkly. They did have a thin layer of the protective white “skin lotion” still on them but it was hardly noticable by sight. (If somebody could synthesize that stuff they’d make a fortune.) If you took a month+ old premie that had grown a bit to be 6+ pounds and threw on a very light coat of good hand lotion, you’d have a pretty good approximation. I have no idea where the idea that newborns are ugly comes from. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/6 "2004-07-15T02:13:32Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I have no idea where the idea that newborns are ugly comes from. I used to think that, and then I saw this. In the past, I’ve seen several shots of supposed newborns that were obviously 3 or 4 months old, with cooing sounds dubbed in. Newborns don’t coo. Present-day TV’s much better in regards to this than they used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/7 "2004-07-15T02:16:15Z")
Darnit. Darnit to heck. www.nmt.edu/~erenee/uglybabies1.html ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/8 "2004-07-15T02:40:30Z")
None of those babies are ugly. At least a couple are obviously not healthy, and a couple of others have lots of moisture wrinkles (like one does after an excessively long bath) but since they spend 40 weeks in liquid, that’s to be expected. I’m not even going to touch the intellectual property/copyright issues involved in putting together that website. Suffice to say that it doesn’t strike me as a legitimate cite of any position for a GQ thread. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/9 "2004-07-15T03:40:09Z")
This is why I hate watching movies with my mother(a neonatologist) and sister(OB/GYN). As soon as the baby’s delivered, inevitably, one of them will have to say “My God! that baby’s at least two months old!” Or some such thing. It’s distracting to say the least. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/10 "2004-07-15T04:46:30Z")
FWIW back in the old days (silent and early talkies) there was a rule that no baby under the age of 1 could be used in a movie. At the [William S. Hart Ranch](http://www.hartmuseum.org/) they have a craddle on display that looks like it could almost sleep an adult. It was a movie prop, so that a 1 year old would look like a newborn for the movies. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/11 "2004-07-15T05:47:09Z")
Personally, i think that most newborns bear a surprising resemblence to Winston Churchill and/or Alfred Hitchcock. But that’s just me… ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/12 "2004-07-15T06:38:11Z")
“Mr. Young hadn’t had to quiet a screaming baby for years. He’d never been much good at it to start with. He’d always respected Sir Winston Churchill, and patting small versions of him on the bottom had always seemed ungracious.” –Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, _Good Omens_ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/13 "2004-07-16T00:38:06Z")
California statutes: > [@](#): > > **1308.8. (a)** No infant under the age of one month may be employed on any motion picture set or location unless a licensed physician and surgeon who is board-certified in pediatrics provides written certification that the infant is at least 15 days old and, in his or her medical opinion, the infant was carried to full term, was of normal birth weight, is physically capable of handling the stress of filmmaking, and the infant’s lungs, eyes, heart, and immune system are sufficiently developed to withstand the potential risks. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/14 "2004-07-16T00:50:51Z")
> [@picker](#): > > Personally, i think that most newborns bear a surprising resemblence to Winston Churchill and/or Alfred Hitchcock. > > But that’s just me… Churchill or Ghandi. I was over 9 pounds at birth. Definitely a Churchill. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/15 "2004-07-16T01:19:18Z")
That’s because newborns have no chins. It facilitates easier breastfeeding. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/16 "2004-07-16T14:34:58Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > That’s because newborns have no chins. It facilitates easier breastfeeding. Yeah, but it takes them forever to change a pillowcase. RR ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/17 "2004-07-16T14:54:11Z")
Hollywood has a long tradition of using older actors to portray kids. Half the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer hadn’t seen the inside of a high school in a decade. By extension, some of the babies on ER are probably ten years old 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/18 "2004-07-16T15:26:53Z")
> [@RiverRunner](#): > > Yeah, but it takes them forever to change a pillowcase. > RR I’m laughing because my brain substituted “fold a king size bed sheet alone”. However … in what fashion is a chin employed to change a pillow case? ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/19 "2004-07-16T15:45:08Z")
> [@Mynn](#): > > However … in what fashion is a chin employed to change a pillow case? For putting the new pillowcase on. Trap the uncased pillow under your chin and then feed the pillowcase up the bottom of the pillow. ---
**Author:** ![35340](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/8baadc/32.png) [@35340](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/35340)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137/20 "2004-07-16T15:51:35Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > For putting the new pillowcase on. Trap the uncased pillow under your chin and then feed the pillowcase up the bottom of the pillow. I guess I’m a wierdo, then. I grab the pillow and ram it into the case. Or I scrunch the case up and wiggle it down the pillow, much like I would pull a shirt onto a one year old child. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newborns-on-tv/255137.md?page=2)