Do babies' ribs break easily

Answer 1

Yes and no. That is, babies ribs are more flexible than those of an older child or adult. Otherwise, simply being born would break them. They don't typically fracture apart like ours (adults) would, instead they do what is called a 'greenstick fracture', which is similar to the way a small green branch would fracture along its length if you bent it far enough to break. It doesn't usually break into two separate pieces, but it is broken nonetheless. Hence the term 'greenstick fracture'.

While the flexibility of a baby's bones makes it more difficult for them to be broken, they would still break much more easily than an adult's bones, but even if they don't actually break, there can still be injury to internal organs if such force is applied that their bones must bend to absorb it.

All in all, babies are much more resilient than many people might think, but they are still only babies and cannot and should not be subjected to such forces that would be safe for adults.

Food for thought; an impact of only 7 km/h is sufficient to fracture a baby's skull.