World’s smallest baby set for home in Japan

ANKARA

The world’s smallest baby is ready to go home, Japanese media reported Friday.

Ryusuke Sekino has grown to 7.4 pounds (3.37 kilograms) after spending five months in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture hospital, according to the Kyodo news agency.

The boy was just 0.6 pounds (258 grams) at birth.

Ryusuke mother, Toshiko Sekino, said her son looked so fragile at birth “she was not even sure how to touch him.”

Doctor Takehiko Hiroma said the “smallest baby” presented difficulties in the treatment.

“Because, immediately after his birth, his blood vessels were too thin to administer intravenous drips,” he said.

He broke the record of the smallest baby born in Tokyo last August by 10 grams.

“The survival rate of babies born weighing less than 1 kilogram is about 90 percent in Japan, but that of babies less than 300 grams (0.7 pounds) is low, especially for boys,” Kyodo reported.

The news agency quoted the U.S. University of Iowa's Tiniest Babies Registry which said the previous record holder for the smallest baby was a boy born at Keio University Hospital weighing 268 grams.

The boy was discharged from the hospital Feb. 20.

Tiniest Babies Registry website lists 25 babies worldwide, who were born weighing less than 300 grams and survived, six of them were boys.