As babies and toddlers learn to move around and experience the world, they're soon going to be accumulating injuries, whether from their own fingernails or from the inevitable bumps and scrapes of toddlerdom.
But no sooner do those injuries appear, than they heal, uncannily quickly, and rarely leaving behind any scars at all. We dive into what's going in inside their tiny Wolverine bodies to give them this super-healing ability.
In this epsiode:
- We spend a bit of time catching up, including an update on Kim and Stella's weaning journey
- We share experiences of our little ones injuring themselves and then healing without a trace
- We discuss growth and skin renewal rate, and how that changes through life
- How this manifests itself in baby fingernails and toenails growing incredibly quickly
- We dive deep into the cellular biology of healing and scarring, exploring the role of collagen and other cells in rebuilding the skin, as well as a balanced immune response to protect and regulate, and the overall instructions given by our genes. Through this, we push the analogy of building a skyscraper to its limit.
- Also, a brief mention of the role of stem cells, although those will get their own episode at some point in the future, too.
