Baby Shower Trivia
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182 free Baby Shower trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
49 free baby shower trivia questions with answers. Baby trivia for a baby shower should be easy enough that Grandma and the college roommate both have a shot, and surprising enough that the room argues about it. That is the mix here: how many bones a newborn has, why babies do not have real kneecaps, what the Apgar score actually checks, who the Gerber baby grew up to be, and which cartoon toddler's pacifier is more famous than her voice. Play it as a party game. Read each question aloud, let guests write their answers on a card, and give a prize to the highest score. Or hand the phone round and let people play in turns while the food goes out. Questions arrive one at a time with four choices, instant scoring and a one-line explanation, so nobody needs to have read a parenting book to keep up. Between rounds, slip in a few baby shower parent trivia questions of your own — how the parents-to-be met, the due date, the names they nearly picked. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and the source is shown under each explanation, so if a fact starts a debate you can settle it in one tap.
30 of 182 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Roughly how many bones does a human have at birth, before some fuse together?
About 270
About 270: a newborn has roughly 270 bones, many of them partly cartilage; the skull plates, sacrum and other pieces fuse over the years down to the adult total of 206.
Q 02A newborn's kneecap is made of what?
Soft cartilage
Soft cartilage: a newborn's patella is entirely cartilage and only begins ossifying into bone between about ages three and five, one reason toddlers crawl on hard floors without complaint.
Q 03What is the everyday name for the fontanelles, the membranous gaps between the bones of a baby's skull?
Soft spots
Soft spots: fontanelles are the membrane-covered gaps between a baby's skull bones; the diamond-shaped anterior one at the top front usually closes between about 9 and 18 months.
Q 04The word "infant" comes from a Latin word meaning what?
Unspeaking
Unspeaking: infant comes from the Latin infans, 'not speaking' (in- plus fari, 'to speak'); in Roman usage the word covered any child too young to talk.
Q 05In developed countries, what is the approximate average birth weight of a full-term newborn?
About 7.5 lb
About 7.5 lb: the average full-term newborn weighs around 7.5 lb (3.4 kg); boys average slightly heavier than girls, and birth weight roughly doubles by about five months.
Q 06How many primary (baby) teeth does a child grow in total?
20
Teething usually starts around six months and the last of them come through by about two and a half.
Q 07What is the waxy white coating on a newborn's skin at birth called?
Vernix
Vernix: vernix caseosa is the cheese-like white coating that protects fetal skin from amniotic fluid; lanugo is the fine downy hair, and the chorion is a fetal membrane.
Q 08Over the first two weeks of life, how many hours a day does a newborn sleep on average?
16-18
16-18: newborns sleep about 16-18 hours a day in the first two weeks, but in two-to-four-hour stretches broken by feeds, which is why new parents look the way they do.
Q 09By roughly what age has the umbilical cord stump usually dried up and dropped off?
Three weeks
If it is still hanging on after three weeks, doctors will want a look, since it can hint at an immune problem.
Q 10The Apgar newborn score was devised in 1952 by a doctor in which specialty?
Anesthesiology
Anesthesiology: Virginia Apgar, an obstetric anesthesiologist at Columbia, devised the score in 1952; her surname later became a backronym for Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration.
Q 11What is the maximum Apgar score a newborn can receive?
10
10: each of the five Apgar criteria scores 0, 1 or 2, so the maximum is 10; the check is done at one minute and repeated at five minutes.
Q 12The rooting reflex helps a hungry newborn do what?
Find the nipple
Find the nipple: stroking a newborn's cheek makes it turn toward the touch and open its mouth, helping it locate the nipple; the reflex fades by around four months.
Q 13When you place a finger in a newborn's palm, the fingers close around it. What is this response called?
The palmar grasp
A fetus can do it in the womb from about 28 weeks, and it fades between two and six months as real fine-motor control arrives.
Q 21In which year did Olivia become the most popular name given to baby girls in the United States?
2019
2019: Olivia overtook Emma as the most-given US girls' name in 2019, ending Emma's five-year run at number one in the Social Security Administration's annual count.
Q 22The American baby boom generation is usually defined as people born between which years?
1946 and 1964
1946 and 1964: Pew, the US Census Bureau and Merriam-Webster all define boomers as those born from 1946 to 1964, the post-war surge in births that peaked in 1957.
Q 23The modern baby shower became popular in which period?
The mid-20th century
The mid-20th century: the modern baby shower, gifts and games for the expectant mother, took off in the post-war baby boom of the late 1940s and 1950s, when the birth surge created demand for cribs and prams.
Q 14The Moro reflex, in which a baby flings its arms out then pulls them in, is a response to what?
A sudden loss of support
A sudden loss of support: Ernst Moro described it in 1918, eliciting it by striking the pillow beside the baby's head; a brief head-drop is the classic trigger, and it fades by about six months.
Q 15Human babies in their first half-year share which instinctive response with seals, otters and dolphins?
The diving reflex
The diving reflex: cold water on the face slows the heart and shunts blood to the core, and babies under about six months reflexively hold their breath when submerged, as seals, otters and dolphins do.
Q 16The first milk a mother produces, rich in antibodies, is called what?
Colostrum
Colostrum: the thick, yellowish first milk is packed with antibodies, especially IgA, and is produced for the first few days before mature milk comes in.
Q 17Around what age do babies enter the 'canonical' babbling stage of distinct vowel and consonant sounds?
Six months
Six months: canonical babbling, repeated consonant-vowel strings like ba-ba-ba and da-da-da, typically begins around six to seven months, and its absence by ten months is a flag for hearing problems.
Q 18The crusty, oily scaly patches sometimes seen on a baby's scalp are commonly known as what?
Cradle cap
Cradle cap: the greasy yellowish scales are infantile seborrhoeic dermatitis of the scalp; it is neither painful nor itchy and usually clears on its own within months.
Q 19Which people are recorded as having the highest rate of twin births in the world?
The Yoruba of Nigeria
The Yoruba of Nigeria: southwest Nigeria records the world's highest twinning rate, roughly 45 per 1,000 births; one theory blames a local yam containing a natural phytoestrogen that may prompt double ovulation.
Q 20Identical twins develop from how many fertilised eggs?
One
One: identical (monozygotic) twins form when a single fertilised egg splits; fraternal twins come from two separate eggs, which is why they can be a boy and a girl.
Q 24The 2008 blog post credited with starting gender reveal parties revealed a baby's sex using what?
A cake
A cake: Jenna Karvunidis's 2008 blog post described cutting into a cake with pink icing inside; by 2019 she was publicly regretting the increasingly extravagant trend she had started.
Q 25In European folklore, which bird is said to bring babies to new parents?
The stork
German versions had the bird finding babies in caves or marshes and carrying them home in a basket or in its beak.
Q 26Architect William Kent built an early baby stroller in 1733 for which aristocrat's children?
The Duke of Devonshire
The Duke of Devonshire: Kent's 1733 carriage for the 3rd Duke's children was a shell-shaped basket on wheels meant to be pulled by a goat or small pony, a forerunner of the pram.
Q 27In 1946 Marion Donovan made the "Boater", an early waterproof diaper cover, out of what?
A shower curtain
A shower curtain: Donovan cut up a shower curtain to make the waterproof 'Boater'; it went on sale at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1949, was patented in 1951, and she sold the rights for a million dollars.
Q 28Pampers began in 1961 after P&G's Victor Mills tired of changing whose cloth diapers?
His grandchild's
His grandchild's: Mills, a P&G chemical engineer, disliked changing his newborn grandchild's cloth diapers and set his team on a disposable alternative; Pampers test-launched in Peoria, Illinois in 1961.
Q 29Ann Turner Cook, the model for the famous Gerber Baby drawing, grew up to work as what?
A teacher and novelist
A teacher and novelist: Cook taught English in Tampa for decades and wrote mystery novels in retirement; neighbour Dorothy Hope Smith's charcoal sketch of her has appeared on Gerber jars since 1928.
Q 30Sophie the Giraffe, the squeaky rubber teether, was launched in 1961 in which country?
France
France: Sophie la Girafe went on sale on 25 May 1961, the feast day of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, which gave her the name; she is made in Rumilly, Haute-Savoie.