EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The sutures meet at the fontanels, the soft spots on your baby’s head. The sutures remain flexible during infancy, allowing the skull to expand as the brain grows. The largest fontanel is at the front (anterior).

Detailed explanation-2: -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. They are located mainly at the top, back, and sides of the head. Like the sutures, fontanelles harden over time and become closed, solid bony areas.

Detailed explanation-3: -An infant is born with two major soft spots on the top of the head called fontanels. These soft spots are spaces between the bones of the skull where bone formation isn’t complete. This allows the skull to be molded during birth. The smaller spot at the back usually closes by age 2 to 3 months.

Detailed explanation-4: -Fontanelles are the soft spaces on your baby’s head where their skull bones have not yet fused together. These spaces allow for the skull bones to shift as needed during birth and for your baby’s brain to grow. They will close as your baby grows.

Detailed explanation-5: -The sutures gradually gain minerals and harden, firmly joining the skull bones together. This process is called ossification. In an infant, the space where 2 sutures join forms a membrane-covered “soft spot” called a fontanelle (fontanel). The fontanelles allow the brain and skull to grow during an infant’s first year.