Newborn Normal Baby Fontanelle

Anterior fontanel size in term and late preterm hispanic neonates.

Newborn normal baby fontanelle. Range of normal size. They provide the skull with the flexibility needed to pass through the birth canal. When your baby is born they will undergo several newborn check ups and tests.

Pressure on the baby s head during vaginal delivery can change the shape of the newborn s head. They are located mainly at the top back and sides of the head. The spaces between the skull bones leave room for the rapid expansion of the brain and head.

A fontanelle or fontanel colloquially soft spot is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising any of the soft membranous gaps between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. You may also notice visible pulsations in the anterior fontanelle wheeler 2015 which is normal. A baby is born with several fontanels.

Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. There are normally several fontanelles on a newborn s skull. Like the sutures fontanelles harden over time and become closed solid bony areas.

Ensure you make note of any retraction or bulging as the normal fontanelle feels firm and flat not sunken or bulging. Fontanelle size in black and white term newborn. Baby s soft spots fontanels an infant is born with two major soft spots on the top of the head called fontanels.

But what exactly is a fontanelle. Jackson gl hoyer a longenecker l engle wd. This flexibility also allows.