NAGANO, Japan: A Japanese baby, who weighed just 258 grammes when he was born in October and is believed to be the smallest boy to have survived in the world, left hospital in good health on Saturday with his family.
“After going home, I want the baby’s brothers and sister to hold him in their arms,” mother Toshiko Sekino said.
As of Friday, Ryusuke Sekino weighed 3.37 kilogrammes, according to the Nagano Children’s Hospital.
“I was not expecting to be able to see him outside the hospital this quickly,” said his beaming father, Kohei Sekino.
According to the Tiniest Babies Registry at the University of Iowa in the United States, the previous record holder was a baby boy born last year at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo weighing just 268 grammes. He was discharged from the hospital on Feb 20.
Toshiko Sekino told reporters she was worried and cried a lot at first because her baby was so fragile and had transparent skin. She said she now is able to breastfeed him and is looking forward to giving him a bath at home.
“There have been difficulties in the treatment because, immediately after his birth, his blood vessels were too thin to administer intravenous drips,” Dr Takehiko Hiroma of Nagano Children’s Hospital said.
Japanese media said Ryusuke measured just 22 centimetres in length when he was born.
“I can really feel his weight now. He used to be so light,” his mother said on Fuji TV news.