Normal Baby Fontanelles

The normal range for head circumference in a term baby is between 31 and 38cms.

Normal baby fontanelles. These are more commonly known as soft spots. The fontanelles allow for growth of the brain and skull during an infant s first year. There are normally several fontanelles on a newborn s skull.

This flexibility also allows. This is completely normal and is more visible if your baby has light colored or little hair. A newborn s head is small but it grows quickly over the first two years of life.

Fontanelles allow the bones of the skull to move so the baby s head can change shape during delivery the birth canal is narrow and the movement of the bones helps the baby s head to get through. On the first day of an infant s life the normal fontanel ranges from 0 6 cm to 3 6 cm with a mean of 2 1 cm 17 black infants have larger fontanels 1 4 cm to 4 7 cm 16 the fontanels of full. They are located mainly at the top back and sides of the head.

They facilitate safe and easy childbirth. They provide the skull with the flexibility needed to pass through the birth canal. Keep in mind the baby s genetics ethnic group gestational age and growth in the womb will all play a factor in determining skull size kain mannix 2018.

When your baby stops crying or is upright again this should subside. Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. These are called fontanelles.

There are 2 fontanelles the space between the bones of an infant s skull where the sutures intersect that are covered by tough membranes that protect the underlying soft tissues and brain. 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.