Tokyo: The world's smallest baby boy, who was born in October in Japan weighing as much like an apple, is now ready for the outside world, his doctor said on Friday.

Ryusuke Sekiya was delivered via emergency Caesarean section, after 24 weeks and five days of pregnancy as his mother Toshiko experienced hypertension. He weighed 258 grams. When Ryusuke was born on October 1, 2018, he measured 22 centimetres (8.66 inches) tall, and the medical staff kept him in a neonatal ICU. They used tubes to feed him, sometimes taking cotton swabs to apply his mother’s milk to his mouth. Nearly seven months later, the boy has grown 13 times in weight, now weighing over 3kgs. He will be released from Nagano Children's Hospital in central Japan over the weekend.