Top 10 Mind-Blowers: Babies and Toddlers

by Robert Lamb
10
Children Are Tooth Monsters
Photographs by Stefan Schäfer

Baby skulls are weird enough with their tiny little toothless maws, but things just get weirder as they age. Behold the living tooth factory inside every child's skull. Where did you think those permanent chompers came from? Here we see the deciduous teeth (or baby teeth) and the buried pearly whites that will replace them -- and hopefully last it throughout its adult life.

Infants and toddlers, on the other hand, get to experience the monstrous and painful eruption of fresh deciduous teeth right out of their pink, pulpy gums. The process makes life miserable for everyone involved.

About the Author: Robert Lamb spent his childhood reading books and staring into the woods — first in Newfoundland, Canada and then in rural Tennessee. There was also a long stretch in which he was terrified of alien abduction. He earned a degree in creative writing. He taught high school and then attended journalism school. He wrote for the smallest of small-town newspapers before finally becoming a full-time science writer and podcaster. He’s currently a senior writer at HowStuffWorks and has co-hosted the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind since its inception in 2010. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his wife Bonnie, discussing dinosaurs with his son Bastian and crafting the occasional work of fiction.