Smallest boy ever allowed hospital leave

The Japanese Ryusuke Sekino weighed less than 258 grams at birth. That makes him the world’s smallest surviving baby boy. Saturday if the little boy, now six months old, to leave the hospital.

Sekino came to the world after a pregnancy of 24 weeks and 5 days, on October 1, 2018. He weighed 258 grams – 10 grams less than the previous record-holder – and was 22 inches long.

He lay for months in the neonatal unit of a children’s hospital in Azumino, in the centre of Japan. “He was so small, I thought he would break if I touch him,” said his mother, Toshiko Sekino. ‘Now drink milk, and we can give him a bath.”

Now, almost 7 months later, he weighs 3 kilograms and he is allowed to go home.

Ryusuke is the smallest boy survived, but is not the smallest baby ever: in 2015, survived a girl that at birth less than 252 grams weighed. Premature girls seem to have a greater chance of making a low birth weight to survive: of the 25 registered prematuurtjes less than 300 grams weighed at birth, there were 19 girls.