A common analogy you might hear when something seems obscenely easy is: "It's like taking candy from a baby." The idiom is so strange, you might wonder if at some point in history reprehensible thieves went around committing the shameful crime! While we couldn't find the origin of the strange phrase, we did discover that Mythbusters' hosts Adam and Jamie decided to find out for themselves just how easy it really is to take candy from a baby.
Jamie first measured how much effort it would take to simply pick up a piece of candy, just .08 of a pound. Next, they brought in a baby as their test subject. Baby Cole was happy to be on the receiving end of a giant lollipop. When Jamie measured the resistance at which Cole held onto that sweet treat, it was 3.16 pounds. That's a lot of resistance from a small child. However, it isn't surprising at all.
Relatively speaking, human infants aren't born with many survival skills (just think about how fast other creatures grow into adulthood and their species's full intelligence; human infants have a long way to go). One of the instincts babies are born with is known as the Palmar grasp reflex. As early as 16 weeks, when anything is placed in an infant's hand, it will tightly grasp onto it. The grip is known to be surprisingly strong and can even support the child's entire body weight. Case in point, stealing candy from a baby is not easy at all!
Please SHARE this fun experiment if you want try out the Palmar grasp reflex on a baby in your family!
