What Is The Fontanelle?

It is a biological term, which refers to a physical gap in the skull of a baby, which is crammed with membrane. When a baby is born, its skull is not completely closed and there are some places left between the bones. At the meeting point of the frontal bone and the two parietal bones(the parietal bones form the side walls of the skull), lies the largest gap, which outwardly could be located at the front part of the head. The size of the gap is around one square inch and is known as anterior fontanelle. If one tries to put the hand through it, one can actually feel the pulsation of the baby's brain. Once the baby is eighteen months old, the gap (the fontanelle) has normally closed. If that is not the case, then there could be several causes for this particular aberration. Maybe some delay in development could be one reason. It may even bulge if the baby is ill or has a fever or is depressed or dehydrated. As for the coining of the term, it is derived from the old French word meaning 'little fountain'.

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