Is what your baby does actually normal?
Real population data on newborn sleep twitches, hiccups, fever thresholds, poop frequency, hair loss, and sleep safety. When to relax and when to call the doctor.
My baby twitches in their sleep
The clinical term is benign neonatal sleep myoclonus. The twitches appear as brief, rhythmic jerks of the arms, legs, or whole body during quiet (NREM) sleep. They often occur in clusters of 4-5 movements, then stop. The crucial feature is that they only happen during sleep and stop immediately when the baby wakes up.
Sleep myoclonus peaks in the first two weeks of life and almost always resolves completely by 6 months. Researchers believe the twitches are part of normal sensorimotor development. You do not need to do anything about them.
My baby won't stop hiccupping
Newborn hiccups are near-universal. The diaphragm is still maturing and is easily triggered by feeding, swallowing air, temperature changes, or excitement. Hiccups are not painful for your baby, even though they can sound distressing. Your baby was almost certainly hiccupping in the womb too: foetal hiccups are commonly detected on ultrasound from around 9 weeks of gestation.
Most episodes last 5-10 minutes and resolve on their own. Traditional remedies like pulling the tongue or pressing the fontanelle are ineffective and potentially dangerous.
What temperature is a fever?
This is the most important threshold on this page. The answer depends entirely on your baby's age.
3-6 months: 39.0°C (102.2°F) or above warrants urgent medical review.
Red signs at any age requiring 999/911/000: Mottled or blue skin, weak or high-pitched cry, non-blanching rash, stiff neck, bulging fontanelle, seizure.
(Source: AAP; NICE NG143 Fever in Under 5s)
How often should my baby poop?
In the first month, a breastfed baby may stool anywhere from 1 to 8 or more times per day (median 4). Formula-fed babies stool 1-5 times per day (median 2). After the first month, some breastfed babies go 7-10 days between stools. Both daily and weekly patterns are normal for breastfed infants because breast milk is so efficiently absorbed that there may simply be very little waste.
My baby's hair is falling out
Almost every baby experiences some degree of hair thinning or shedding in the first 6 months. The mechanism is synchronised telogen effluvium triggered by the hormonal shift at birth. During pregnancy, high maternal hormones keep the baby's hair in a prolonged growth phase. After birth, hormone levels drop and a large proportion of follicles enter the resting phase simultaneously, then shed together.
The hair that grows back (usually starting around 6-12 months) may be a completely different colour or texture than the birth hair. This is normal. A baby born with dark, straight hair may end up with light, curly hair.
Can my newborn have bad dreams?
Nightmares as adults experience them require narrative memory, contextual fear, and complex REM sleep imagery. Newborns spend approximately 50% of their total sleep in REM, but their neocortex is still developing and cannot generate story-based dreams. Night terrors do not typically appear until 18 months at the earliest and peak between 3-7 years of age.
What parents often interpret as a bad dream (crying out, grimacing, or startling during sleep) is more likely a normal sleep-state transition, a startle (Moro) reflex, or benign sleep myoclonus. Newborns cycle between sleep states roughly every 45-60 minutes, and brief fussing at transition points is extremely common.
How long does the newborn stage actually last?
The medical definition of the neonatal period is birth to 28 days. Clinical thresholds, including the emergency fever threshold of 38.0°C, apply to the first 3 months, not just the first 28 days. For practical purposes, if a guideline says "newborn," most clinicians mean the first 12 weeks. The developmental boundary is the social smile (around 6-8 weeks) and emerging head control (around 2-3 months).
Is side sleeping safe?
No. Every major paediatric safety body (AAP, Lullaby Trust, Red Nose Australia) recommends that babies sleep on their backs (supine) for every sleep, including naps, until they can roll both ways independently (typically 4-6 months). Side sleeping is unstable and babies can roll onto their stomach (prone), which is the highest-risk position for SIDS.
Current US compliance data shows approximately 77% of parents consistently place babies on their back to sleep, meaning roughly 1 in 4 families is not following this guidance. The most common concern parents cite is choking risk, which is unfounded: healthy babies have protective airway reflexes, and back-sleeping does not increase choking risk.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The clinical term is benign neonatal sleep myoclonus, and it affects 66 to 80% of newborns in the first three months. The twitches typically appear as brief, rhythmic jerks of the arms, legs, or whole body during quiet sleep. They stop immediately when the baby wakes up. Sleep myoclonus peaks in the first two weeks and almost always resolves by six months. If twitches occur while your baby is awake, or do not stop when the baby wakes, contact your paediatrician.
Newborn hiccups are near-universal. More than 95% of healthy newborns experience regular hiccup episodes, with most having two to three per day in the first three months. Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the maturing diaphragm triggered by feeding, swallowing air, temperature changes, or excitement. They are not painful for your baby. Most episodes last 5 to 10 minutes and resolve on their own. Traditional remedies such as startling the baby are ineffective. If hiccups interfere persistently with feeding, mention it to your health visitor.
For babies under three months, any temperature of 38.0C (100.4F) or above requires immediate medical attention, even if the baby looks well. In the under-three-month age group, the immune system cannot reliably contain bacterial infections, and what looks like a mild fever can escalate rapidly. For babies aged three to six months, a temperature of 39.0C (102.2F) or above or fever lasting more than 24 hours warrants urgent assessment. Always use a rectal or axillary thermometer for accuracy, and do not give paracetamol to babies under two months without medical advice.
Poop frequency varies enormously and changes with age and feeding method. In the first week, most newborns pass meconium then transition to 3 to 8 stools per day. By the end of the first month, breastfed babies may poop after every feed or as infrequently as once every 7 to 10 days, both of which are normal. Formula-fed babies typically poop 1 to 4 times per day with more consistency. The key concern is not frequency but consistency and whether the baby is feeding well and gaining weight. Hard, pellet-like stools or signs of straining with a firm abdomen warrant assessment.
Yes. Newborn hair loss is so common it has a clinical name: telogen effluvium neonatorum. Most babies shed the hair they were born with in the first few months of life, often replaced by permanent hair that may be a different colour or texture. The hair loss is driven by the postpartum hormone shift and is completely benign. Patchy hair loss on the back of the head is often caused by friction from lying in one position. This self-corrects as the baby becomes more mobile. Patchy loss combined with redness, scaling, or other skin changes may warrant a GP assessment.
Back sleeping is the safest position for babies. Healthy babies have protective airway reflexes and can swallow or cough up any fluid that enters their airway while lying on their back. The AAP, NHS, Lullaby Trust, and all major paediatric safety organisations worldwide recommend back-only sleeping for every sleep until the baby can roll both ways independently. Back-to-sleep campaigns reduced SIDS rates by approximately 50% after their introduction. Side sleeping is not recommended because babies can roll onto their stomach, which is the highest-risk position.
Clinically, the newborn period is defined as the first 28 days of life. Colloquially, many parents and healthcare professionals use "newborn stage" to mean the first 3 months, also called the fourth trimester. During this period, the baby is adjusting to life outside the womb: establishing feeding, developing sleep patterns, and beginning to respond to faces and voices. Most of the behaviours parents find alarming, such as sleep twitching, hiccuping, irregular breathing, and frequent crying, peak during the newborn stage and resolve or dramatically reduce by 3 months.
Key signs that warrant prompt medical attention include: fever (as per the temperature thresholds above by age), a high-pitched or unusual cry unlike the baby's normal cry, a bulging or sunken fontanelle, persistent vomiting especially if green or yellow, refusing feeds for more than 4 to 6 hours, blood in stool or urine, unusual drowsiness or difficulty waking, skin that is pale, blue-tinged, or blotchy (mottled) and cold, and any rash that does not fade under a glass. If you are uncertain, contacting your health visitor, GP out-of-hours service, or emergency services is always the right call.