Normal Newborn Fontanelle

A tense or bulging fontanelle occurs when fluid builds up in the brain or the brain swells causing increased pressure inside the skull.

Normal newborn fontanelle. Usually only the anterior fontanel which is on the top of the head toward the front can be seen and felt. This flexibility also allows. 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.

An infant with a normal head shape size and growth should reassure the primary care provider that an anterior fontanel that is small or not palpable at an early age has no pathology and can be followed at regular well child visits. This is the junction where the 2 frontal and 2 parietal bones meet. Doctors can assess if there is increased intracranial pressure by feeling the anterior fontanelle.

Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. 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. 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.

The anterior fontanelle remains soft until about 18 months to 2 years of age. A newborn has fontanels on the top back and sides of their head. A baby is born with several fontanels.

The spaces between the skull bones leave room for the rapid expansion of the brain and head. These are more commonly known as soft spots. A newborn s head is small but it grows quickly over the first two years of life.

This is the one. When the infant is crying lying down or vomiting the fontanelles may look like they are bulging.