Very often, young parents are at a loss when they find soft pulsating areas of the skin on the head of their newborn child instead of hard bones. This is the fontanelle. It occurs at the junction of three or more bony plates of the skull.
Instructions
Step 1
Pediatricians monitor the size of the large fontanelle and the time of its overgrowth. There are no special rules and deadlines for the disappearance of the fontanelle. Statistics show that boys are growing faster than girls. And by the age of 2 years, a large fontanelle is overgrown in 95% of children.
Step 2
To assess the correct development of the child, the condition of his large and posterior fontanelles, doctors examine the baby's head, gently feeling the elastic edges of the fontanelles. For babies, this process does not deliver any painful sensations.
Step 3
Do the same procedure at home yourself: put the baby in a bed or changing table and gently touch the edges of the fontanelle with light movements of your hand. Try to roughly estimate the size of the opening. You should not use rulers: you can scare your child or cause him discomfort. If you are not sure of the accuracy of your own observations, take a soft tape measure.
Step 4
The small, posterior fontanel usually has a size of 0.5-0.7 cm. Measure the large fontanel along the lobar and transverse axes, since it has the shape of a rhombus. To find the correct dimensions, use a simple formula: add the sum of the lengths of both axes and divide by two. The fontanel size standard for an infant is 2.1 cm.
Step 5
The fontanelle is measured by the doctor at each visit to the child. No special tools are used. A slowly overgrowing fontanelle can serve as a symptom of diseases such as congenital hypothyroidism (changes in the function of the thyroid gland), rickets, achondrodysplasia (dwarfism), Down syndrome.
Step 6
On the contrary, too quickly overgrowing fontanelle may indicate the presence of craniosynostosis (a specific disease of the skeletal system), abnormalities in the development of the brain. However, only doctors can determine the cause of the fast or slow overgrowth of the large fontanelle.
