Were You Dropped on Your Head as a Baby
Past Laura Jana, Dr., FAAP & Jennifer Shu, Physician, FAAP
Many parents have been mistakenly led to believe that all newborns are born flick-perfect, with pretty little round heads. Permit united states just say that for anyone who has gone through or volition experience vaginal delivery, information technology is nothing short of a blessing that a baby'due south skull is made upwardly of soft bony plates that are capable of compressing and overlapping to fit through the narrow nascence canal—a process referred to as molding.
Shaping upwards
For some babies—such as those who "drop" well in advance of being born (in other words, settle themselves caput first deep into their mother's pelvis well in accelerate of delivery), or those who must endure long labors and narrow nascency canals—the result is often a newborn caput shape that more closely resembles a cone than a prissy round ball.
If y'all run your fingers over your newborn's skull, you may besides find that you can feel ridges forth the areas where the bony plates of the skull have overlapped. In short, slightly misshapen heads are quite common right after birth.
Fortunately, over the next several weeks the bones of your baby's skull volition almost assuredly round out and the ridges will disappear—assuming, that is, that your infant doesn't spend too much time on their dorsum with his caput in any 1 position. This is a common but hands avoidable crusade for the evolution of a flat back or side of the head known equally plagiocephaly.
The soft spot
Y'all volition notice one to two areas on your baby's head that seem to be lacking bony protection. These soft spots, referred to every bit fontanelles (anterior for the larger one in the forepart, posterior for the smaller and typically less noticeable one in the back), are normal gaps in a newborn'due south skull that will let your baby's brain to abound rapidly throughout the next twelvemonth.
Many parents are afraid to affect these soft spots, but you lot can residuum assured that, despite their lack of a bony layer, they are well protected from typical 24-hour interval-to-day baby handling. Other things to know about the soft spot(due south) include:
- In young infants, a sunken soft spot (when combined with poor feeding and dry diapers) tin can propose dehydration. Our advice to you: Don't read also much into this because it tin can be a subtle finding or sometimes be present in normal babies. Instead, make certain you have a good grasp on how to recognize dehydration and check with your doctor if you lot have any concerns—with or without a sunken soft spot.
- In some instances, the soft spot on the top of your baby's head may seem to be pulsating. In that location is no demand to worry—this motility is quite normal and but 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 usually is well-nigh noticeable at the pinnacle back role of the head and is medically referred to as a caput (short for head succedaneum). When bruising of the caput occurs during delivery, the upshot can be a boggy-feeling expanse, called a cephalohematoma.
Bruising and swelling are usually harmless and get away on their own over the get-go days and weeks, simply tin can be a contributing factor for jaundice.
Gone today, but pilus tomorrow
Sure, babies are sometimes built-in with full heads of pilus, but it'south far more than likely for them to be born with trivial to none. And those with hair today are probable to find it gone tomorrow. That's because any hair your infant is born with is likely to thin out significantly over the next few months before ultimately being replaced with "real" hair. It is as well entirely possible that any hair your newborn does take will change colour past several shades and several times over their lifetime.
More than information
- How Your Newborn Looks
- Uneven Head Shape in Babies: Causes and Treatment of Craniosynostosis
Most Dr. Jana |
About Dr. Shu |
Laura A. Jana, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician and mother of iii with a faculty appointment at the Penn State University Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. She is the writer of more than 30 parenting and children's books and serves as an early babyhood expert/contributor for organizations including the Maternal and Kid Health Bureau, Primrose Schools, and Usa News & World Report. She lives in Omaha, NE.
Jennifer Shu, Md, FAAP serves equally 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's Medical Group in Atlanta, Georgia, and she is besides 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 individual practice, as well equally working in an academic medical center. She served equally director of the normal newborn plant nursery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. Dr. Shu is also co-writer of Nutrient Fights and Heading Habitation with Your Newborn published past the American Academy of Pediatrics.The data contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.
Source: https://healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/Pages/Your-Babys-Head.aspx
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