Fontanelle Closure Timeline

The sutures meet at the fontanels the soft spots on your baby s head.

Fontanelle closure timeline. The fontanelle is usually closed by the time the baby. In chimpanzees the anterior fontanelle is fully closed by 3 months of age. The anterior fontanel is the largest and most important for.

At two months of age the posterior fontanelle closes followed by anterior fontanelle closure at approximately two years. In contrast apes fuse the fontanelles soon after birth. Two fontanelles usually are present on a newborn s skull.

Fontanelle and suture closure occurs in a specific pattern table 1 and table 2. Joints made of strong fibrous tissue cranial sutures hold the bones of your baby s skull together. At birth an infant has six fontanels.

The sutures remain flexible during infancy allowing the skull to expand as the brain grows. It may already be closed at birth. The diagnosis of an abnormal fontanel requires an understanding of the wide variation of normal.

The largest fontanel is at the front anterior. The anterolateral and posterolateral fontanelles close at three months and one year respectively. Fontanelles allow for rapid stretching and deformation of the neurocranium as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow.

A fontanelle or fontanel colloquially soft spot is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising any of the soft membranous gaps between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. It will take between 12 to 18 months for the sutures to solidify here.