What Does the Soft Spot on Baby Head Look Like
Past Laura Jana, Medico, FAAP & Jennifer Shu, Medico, FAAP
Many parents have been mistakenly led to believe that all newborns are born picture-perfect, with pretty little round heads. Allow us only say that for anyone who has gone through or will experience vaginal delivery, it is nothing brusque of a blessing that a baby's skull is made up of soft bony plates that are capable of compressing and overlapping to fit through the narrow birth canal—a process referred to as molding.
Shaping upwardly
For some babies—such equally those who "drib" well in accelerate of being born (in other words, settle themselves head first deep into their female parent'south pelvis well in advance of delivery), or those who must endure long labors and narrow nativity canals—the result is ofttimes a newborn caput shape that more than closely resembles a cone than a nice round brawl.
If you run your fingers over your newborn's skull, you may also find that you can feel ridges along the areas where the bony plates of the skull accept overlapped. In short, slightly misshapen heads are quite common correct later birth.
Fortunately, over the next several weeks the bones of your baby'due south skull volition almost convincingly round out and the ridges will disappear—assuming, that is, that your baby doesn't spend as well much time on their back with his head in any one position. This is a mutual but easily avoidable cause for the development of a apartment back or side of the head known equally plagiocephaly.
The soft spot
Y'all will observe one to ii areas on your babe's head that seem to be lacking bony protection. These soft spots, referred to as fontanelles (inductive for the larger one in the front, posterior for the smaller and typically less noticeable one in the back), are normal gaps in a newborn's skull that volition allow your baby's brain to grow rapidly throughout the side by side year.
Many parents are afraid to touch on these soft spots, but y'all can residue assured that, despite their lack of a bony layer, they are well protected from typical day-to-day baby treatment. Other things to know about the soft spot(s) include:
- In immature infants, a sunken soft spot (when combined with poor feeding and dry out diapers) tin can suggest dehydration. Our advice to you lot: Don't read too much into this because it tin be a subtle finding or sometimes be nowadays in normal babies. Instead, make sure you accept a good grasp on how to recognize dehydration and check with your doctor if you have any concerns—with or without a sunken soft spot.
- In some instances, the soft spot on the superlative of your baby's head may seem to be pulsating. There is no need to worry—this motility is quite normal and just reflects the visible pulsing of blood that corresponds to your baby's heartbeat.
Bumps & bruises
In addition to molding, a bit of swelling or bruising of the scalp immediately following delivery is not uncommon for newborns. The swelling normally is about noticeable at the tiptop back part of the head and is medically referred to as a caput (brusque for caput succedaneum). When bruising of the head occurs during delivery, the outcome can exist a boggy-feeling area, chosen a cephalohematoma.
Bruising and swelling are normally harmless and get away on their own over the showtime days and weeks, but can exist a contributing gene for jaundice.
Gone today, but hair tomorrow
Certain, babies are sometimes born with full heads of hair, only it's far more probable for them to be born with niggling to none. And those with hair today are likely to find it gone tomorrow. That'due south because whatsoever hair your baby is built-in with is likely to thin out significantly over the next few months before ultimately being replaced with "real" pilus. It is also entirely possible that whatever pilus your newborn does have will alter color by several shades and several times over their lifetime.
More information
- How Your Newborn Looks
- Uneven Head Shape in Babies: Causes and Handling of Craniosynostosis
About Dr. Jana |
About Dr. Shu |
Laura A. Jana, Physician, FAAP, is a pediatrician and mother of 3 with a faculty appointment at the Penn State University Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Enquiry Center. She is the author of more than 30 parenting and children's books and serves equally an early childhood expert/contributor for organizations including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Primrose Schools, and U.s.a. News & World Report. She lives in Omaha, NE.
Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP serves as the medical editor of HealthyChildren.org and provides oversight and direction for the site in conjunction with the staff editor. Dr. Shu is a practicing pediatrician at Children'southward Medical Group in Atlanta, Georgia, and she is also a mom. She earned her medical degree at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and specialized in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her experience includes working in private do, as well as working in an academic medical middle. She served as director of the normal newborn nursery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in New Hampshire. Dr. Shu is also co-writer of Nutrient Fights and Heading Home with Your Newborn published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.The information contained on this Spider web site should non be used as a substitute for the medical intendance and communication of your pediatrician. At that place may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.
Source: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/Pages/Your-Babys-Head.aspx
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