Infant

An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. Infant (from the Latin word infans, meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless'[1]) is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term baby. The terms may also be used to refer to juveniles of other organisms. A newborn is, in colloquial use, an infant who is only hours, days, or up to one month old. In medical contexts, a newborn or neonate (from Latin, neonatus, newborn) is an infant in the first 28 days after birth;[2] the term applies to premature, full term, and postmature infants.

A newborn infant being held by an adult man

Before birth, the offspring is called a fetus. The term infant is typically applied to very young children under one year of age; however, definitions may vary and may include children up to two years of age. When a human child learns to walk, they are called a toddler instead.


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