SHANGHAI, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- A newborn baby the size of an adult hand would require another two weeks at least before it was out of danger, the baby's doctor said Thursday.

    The baby was monitored 24 hours a day and his condition was stable, but he had to overcome three critical periods: breathing, infection and feeding, Wang Xiaoming, director of the Pediatrics Department with the Shanghai No. 5 People's Hospital, told Xinhua.

    The baby was reliant on a respirator to breathe as his respiratory organs were underdeveloped, Wang said.

    "Infection is the biggest difficulty he must face," he said.

    All of the boy's organs were underdeveloped, making him susceptible to infection, which could lead to blood poisoning or even death.

    He was being fed through nose, but might move on to breast feeding on Friday if his digestive ability developed, he said.

    The baby, almost 20 cm from head to toe, was born at about 1:00 p.m. on Monday at the Shanghai hospital. He weighed in at 630 grams, only a fifth of the normal weight of a newborn baby.

    He was born to a 28-year-old woman surnamed Shen. She and her husband are both migrant workers in Shanghai.

    The baby has only been gestating for 30 weeks. The survival rate for such premature babies is less than 10 percent.