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Is it OK to touch the soft spot on a baby's head?


5356 day(s) ago

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cabbagehead
Yes. The soft spots are called fontanels. A baby has several of these, but only the two largest spots, on the middle front and middle back of the head, are really noticeable. In some babies, they move so easily you can see his or her pulse.


A fontanel is a piece of cartilage between the bone plates in a baby's skull. This is the same material your nose and ears are made of, and no extra care needs to be made handling these areas then you would normally take with a baby. There are two reasons for these structures:

During birth, the fontanels make the skull flexible, making exit from the womb a lot easier. This gives newborns a pointed head, which will eventually return to its normal shape.

After birth, the brain will grow, requiring more space than will be available inside the skull. The bones are able to grow around the cartilage to expand the cranium. Toward the end of brain growth, the skull plates will replace the fontanels, fusing together at around 24 months of age.

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