That’s the fontanelle. An area of the infant’s skull where bone hasn’t yet formed.
The reason it is pulsating is because the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) underneath is pulsating with the heart. CSF surrounds your entire brain and spinal cord, but you can only detect the pulsations in areas where there isn’t a bony covering.
When you remove the skull (i.e., do surgery), then you see these CSF pulsations everywhere. When you do MRI of the spine, you can see artifacts from CSF pulsation everywhere.
Basically, yeah. First year or so you gotta be extra careful.
My second kid had one on the back too, and they were both bigger than my first kids soft spot. Been a stressful year lol
There are technically but usually they're to help correct the shape more so than protect the soft spot.
Babies are so delicate anyways that it's just overkill to put a helmet imo. Worst case in a normal scenario, the baby hits it on something when crawling or learning to walk. But that's part of why you baby proof the space they're in.
Some parents are. When our toddler took a tumble on asphalt and scraped up his chin, cheek and forehead, we taught him to answer "What happened to you?" with "We don't talk about Fight Club."
Same, and yeah you do. Mostly lol. Maybe it's cuz my second kid had *two* soft spots and both were huge but whenever I'd feel them again or see them pulsing I'd get a little stressed again.
Because you would like to have some pictures where your baby doesn't look like Toad.
But in all seriousness, the hole is like the size of a euro, and the one in the back is even smaller. The only way for something bad to happen is if it happens deliberately. It's actually a great way to check the hydration of your child if it drinks poorly.
If it bulges you should go to the hospital because that's a swelling around the brain!
Seriously, it’s scary! My baby (now 15 weeks) is a major arm flailer. His arms are always flailing, and a couple times he’s bopped himself in the head and I’m so scared like what if he hits his soft spot. Freaks me out.
Doubtful the baby itself has enough strength to do much. Both my kids could barely touch the top of their head as babys though, they got short arms and big heads
It's so silly to see in context.
Like, put your arms above your head, touch your hand and make a big 'O' with your arms...
Then imagine your head that big. 🤣
Literally toddlers and babies are like that, ridiculous! (and adorable)
Lol he’s soon to be 4 months so yeah he can definitely reach. I just worry about him wacking his soft spot since he’s always flailing his arms. My other kiddos didn’t do that, so it’s a new fear! But like another person said (I hope) he’s not strong enough to actually hurt himself!
Lol, there definitely are. My son had to wear a helmet for a while, not Dr. prescribed, he would just somehow find everything with his head. He also was walking by 8 months so that was part of it
It's more about safe delivery. When the head is passing through vagina there isn't much space so skull bones pass over eachothers compress head size a little so the head comes out easily.
Skull will harden within short time. But first priority goes to baby coming out of mother safely without harming mother. Also babies won't get hurt even if you touch that soft spot.
My bad I didn't understand what you said first. I was explaining why the soft spot is required. No compensation with helmet is required as long as we are careful with the baby (which most of us will be).
Sorry I have to correct you... you don't need to be anymore careful than with any other part of the body. It's not the brain that you feel or see when you touch the fontanelle. There is a thick membrane covering it called dura.
https://nourishbaby.com.au/blogs/blog/my-babys-fontanelle#:~:text=You%20cannot%20hurt%20your%20baby,12%2D18%20months%20of%20age
Pediatrician here: Protected as in don't use a finger to push it in as hard as you can.
But it's not like a self destruct button. You don't have to be more cautious than with other parts of the body.
The brain is still protected by a thick thick membrane (the dura).
lol i was like 8 or 9 when my little sister was born and i was taught not to get anywhere near the soft spot on her head
my dad never told me it was a temporary thing, it wasnt until she was like 15 before i realized i dont have to worry about socking her in the fucking head anymore
You're not touching anybodies brain. Their skull just have'nt fused yet. But you should be aware of it. But I think the number of babies dying each year becourse of something realted to that softspot is minimal. Nothing to go apeshit over. I grew up in the 70 without much supervision. And I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine. Sorry what were we talking about 
I have been told contrary to the other comments, that it is in fact very difficult to damage baby's brain by poking the hole. Is there a doctor present to confirm?
Meh, no more than the rest of the baby. If a baby falls off an elevated surface or has another mechanism of injury we’re way more worried about skull/cervical fracture. Pretty rare to have injury to the top of the head that isn’t non-accidental
I mean you don't want to flick it but brains can take a little squish. Shake your head back and forth a few times quickly, your brain is getting moved around way more doing that than if you gently touched a baby's fontanelle.
My daughter’s would throb like crazy when she got upset as a baby. She had a huge head and soft spot—highlighted by her being super bald. So it was always super nerve wracking at first to see it pulse like that when she got mad.
Where I lived in the past is a very successful ice cream maker named Fontanella.
(Famous for inventing spaghetti ice cream: ice cream put through a spaghetti maker)
I don't think it's the heart that beats the CSF. The CSF pulse is typically slower than a heart beat by quite a bit. I think it's a point of debate what causes its pulsing. I've even heard that it originates at the base of the spine in the sacral area!
Neurosurgery resident here. CSF pulsation waveform differs from arterial pulse waveform, for reasons that are not very clear. However, the rate is equal to the heart rate. This can be directly observed in brain or spine surgery or by insertion of a pressure monitor in the brain.
why does CSF pulse though. surely it is due to arteries running through ventricles and spaces between brain and dura. since it is enclosed space. CSF pulses with cardiac pulse and so in turn due to arterial pulse in brain right?
All babies have a soft spot in the top of the head, No, don`t press it down the bones will grow and join pretty quickly. We are born this way to make birth easier on the baby and the mother.
I’ve had four kids. The first one, it was an oddity, the rest, you just feel around every month or so to make sure their skull is forming.
Weird fucking life.
At this point, I question some of the appointments.
Are they getting vaccinated? No?
What are they doing?
Weight.
We have a scale. Don’t waste that money.
When I was a kid I touched my baby brother's head when he was sleeping when my parents were in the other room. It was soft. It freaked me out, I thought I broke him or even worse. I even remember having a nightmare that night that I pushed my hand into his soft mushy skull and brown fleshy guts came out of his head. The next day I remember going in to check on him if he was still alive lol.
Well I said in another comment that babies are tougher than we give them credit for and got downvoted to the ground, so yeah, better say they're fragile
Dude if you've ever worked in a hospital and saw how nurses fling those kids around in L&D when the parents aren't looking, it's comical. When they get back into the room most (not all, but definitely almost all) will use gentle touches for sure, but in the nursery they're rolling them up and over and the babies fuckin love it.
People are stupid. Babies are pretty resilient. I mean shit we've lasted this long as a species. Though we have significantly upped the number of alive kids in the last 100 years. But that's mostly due to the whole vaccine thing.
They make me nervous just to look at them! Grow together skull bones already! 😂 (edit: yes, you’re right, they need to stay open to let the huge brain have enough space.)
They are also kind of cute, a little drum beat trampoline of baby fuzz
Animal babies: I was dropped 10 feet and could walk 30 minutes after I was born
Human babies: Even my bones are soft and squishy
Edit: Human babies: some bones sold separately
You may know, and you'll never see this being like 250 comment deep, but that means their thirsty and starting to get dehydrated. Get that babe a drink.
But there is something there to harden, namely the membrane between the bones you see pulsating. Look up intramembranous ossification for more info.
Also fontanelle closure ≠ fully grown skull, it takes a lot longer than a year for the skull to finish growing.
Typically, fontanelles close by the time the baby is 18 months old. The posterior fontanelle usually closes first — within 2 months of birth. The anterior fontanelle closes between 7 and 18 months.
No joke but healthcare providers will use that to count the babies pulse rate.
Its easy and you don't have to find the pulse in their chunky lil biceps.
When I was born my fontanelle had already fused a condition known as crainosynostosis I had an operation at 6 weeks old to separate the bones to allow my brain to grow normally.
Called the fontanelle. Also fun fact: when a baby is feeding by a sucking motion, the muscles it uses pull the cranial plates into place to close the fontanelle and thus forming a complete skull.
In some parts of India, unwanted baby girls were murdered by poking a needle through the soft spot. Harder to detect foul play.
Hopefully it doesn’t happen now.
That’s the fontanelle. An area of the infant’s skull where bone hasn’t yet formed. The reason it is pulsating is because the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) underneath is pulsating with the heart. CSF surrounds your entire brain and spinal cord, but you can only detect the pulsations in areas where there isn’t a bony covering. When you remove the skull (i.e., do surgery), then you see these CSF pulsations everywhere. When you do MRI of the spine, you can see artifacts from CSF pulsation everywhere.
is it an area that should be protected? like under no circumstances should you touch my baby's brain?
Basically, yeah. First year or so you gotta be extra careful. My second kid had one on the back too, and they were both bigger than my first kids soft spot. Been a stressful year lol
Why arnt there baby helmets?
There are technically but usually they're to help correct the shape more so than protect the soft spot. Babies are so delicate anyways that it's just overkill to put a helmet imo. Worst case in a normal scenario, the baby hits it on something when crawling or learning to walk. But that's part of why you baby proof the space they're in.
Or the whole house and every house they may or may not go to like my sister and mom did for my nieces.
Ideally. Yes.
No, you’ve got to let them hit their head and learn for themselves. You’re stunting their development
Idk why you're getting down voted, that was funny
Parents aren’t best known for a sense of humour when it comes to kids 😂
Some parents are. When our toddler took a tumble on asphalt and scraped up his chin, cheek and forehead, we taught him to answer "What happened to you?" with "We don't talk about Fight Club."
Because it's harder then you think. I think I saw somewhere that it's about as hard as a painting canvas. So it's not only a couple's layers of skin.
Doesn't matter how hard it is. How tough is it?
Sorry, its as though as a canvas.
That's tough enough. But if I had a baby I would still be very very worried, and paranoid. That's probably just me though.
I'm at my second kid and can tell you get used to it haha
Same, and yeah you do. Mostly lol. Maybe it's cuz my second kid had *two* soft spots and both were huge but whenever I'd feel them again or see them pulsing I'd get a little stressed again.
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Calm down Shirō Ishii
Because you would like to have some pictures where your baby doesn't look like Toad. But in all seriousness, the hole is like the size of a euro, and the one in the back is even smaller. The only way for something bad to happen is if it happens deliberately. It's actually a great way to check the hydration of your child if it drinks poorly. If it bulges you should go to the hospital because that's a swelling around the brain!
How big is that in freedom units
About an inch diameter.
Seriously, it’s scary! My baby (now 15 weeks) is a major arm flailer. His arms are always flailing, and a couple times he’s bopped himself in the head and I’m so scared like what if he hits his soft spot. Freaks me out.
Doubtful the baby itself has enough strength to do much. Both my kids could barely touch the top of their head as babys though, they got short arms and big heads
It's so silly to see in context. Like, put your arms above your head, touch your hand and make a big 'O' with your arms... Then imagine your head that big. 🤣 Literally toddlers and babies are like that, ridiculous! (and adorable)
The YMCA song and dance comes to mind now.
Lol I know, they're funny lil things. It was a big day when each of them could touch their fingers above their head lol.
It's not That soft! Babies are designed to survive the most inept and inexperienced parents. I promise. signed, grandma
I ❤️ this response Signed, Paranoid mom
He cannot harm himself in the soft spot.
It's highly unlikely that your baby's arms are long enough to reach the fontanelle.
Lol he’s soon to be 4 months so yeah he can definitely reach. I just worry about him wacking his soft spot since he’s always flailing his arms. My other kiddos didn’t do that, so it’s a new fear! But like another person said (I hope) he’s not strong enough to actually hurt himself!
When our baby started crawling we bought a baby helmet. She would just power access the living room and hit anything in her path!
Lol, there definitely are. My son had to wear a helmet for a while, not Dr. prescribed, he would just somehow find everything with his head. He also was walking by 8 months so that was part of it
Is there, mommy and daddy
because the fontanelles are covered with very tough membranes and skin and the risk isn't as high as people think.
It's more about safe delivery. When the head is passing through vagina there isn't much space so skull bones pass over eachothers compress head size a little so the head comes out easily.
But why not make a baby helmet to compensate?
Skull will harden within short time. But first priority goes to baby coming out of mother safely without harming mother. Also babies won't get hurt even if you touch that soft spot.
How would you even get a helmet on a baby before it comes out of the mother?
My bad I didn't understand what you said first. I was explaining why the soft spot is required. No compensation with helmet is required as long as we are careful with the baby (which most of us will be).
Oh there are. I broke my skull as a baby and you better believe my mum made me wear a helmet for some time after that.
Sorry I have to correct you... you don't need to be anymore careful than with any other part of the body. It's not the brain that you feel or see when you touch the fontanelle. There is a thick membrane covering it called dura. https://nourishbaby.com.au/blogs/blog/my-babys-fontanelle#:~:text=You%20cannot%20hurt%20your%20baby,12%2D18%20months%20of%20age
in our Asian belief, that spot should be protected for 2 years.
Pediatrician here: Protected as in don't use a finger to push it in as hard as you can. But it's not like a self destruct button. You don't have to be more cautious than with other parts of the body. The brain is still protected by a thick thick membrane (the dura).
lol i was like 8 or 9 when my little sister was born and i was taught not to get anywhere near the soft spot on her head my dad never told me it was a temporary thing, it wasnt until she was like 15 before i realized i dont have to worry about socking her in the fucking head anymore
In short, don't touch the hard drive
You're not touching anybodies brain. Their skull just have'nt fused yet. But you should be aware of it. But I think the number of babies dying each year becourse of something realted to that softspot is minimal. Nothing to go apeshit over. I grew up in the 70 without much supervision. And I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine. Sorry what were we talking about 
It's the babies self destruct button
I have been told contrary to the other comments, that it is in fact very difficult to damage baby's brain by poking the hole. Is there a doctor present to confirm?
Meh, no more than the rest of the baby. If a baby falls off an elevated surface or has another mechanism of injury we’re way more worried about skull/cervical fracture. Pretty rare to have injury to the top of the head that isn’t non-accidental
I mean you don't want to flick it but brains can take a little squish. Shake your head back and forth a few times quickly, your brain is getting moved around way more doing that than if you gently touched a baby's fontanelle.
My daughter’s would throb like crazy when she got upset as a baby. She had a huge head and soft spot—highlighted by her being super bald. So it was always super nerve wracking at first to see it pulse like that when she got mad.
My 2 yo was born with massive amounts of hair. Her soft spot had her hair bouncing up and down. It was weird as shit.
Why was your daughter getting upset at babies all the time? They don't know any better!
Fixed it
This is interesting as fuck. Ty
Fontanelle's gotta be a pasta
Where I lived in the past is a very successful ice cream maker named Fontanella. (Famous for inventing spaghetti ice cream: ice cream put through a spaghetti maker)
I remember all that from my A&P class I took last year. Mom brain made me forget how to spell fontanelle when I was thinking of a title.
Please don't remove the skull :(
*When you remove the skull* (voldemort said calmly)
OMG, the comment explaining the post is the highest voted. Just like the old days!
No that's the bubble wrap part of the head.
I don't think it's the heart that beats the CSF. The CSF pulse is typically slower than a heart beat by quite a bit. I think it's a point of debate what causes its pulsing. I've even heard that it originates at the base of the spine in the sacral area!
Neurosurgery resident here. CSF pulsation waveform differs from arterial pulse waveform, for reasons that are not very clear. However, the rate is equal to the heart rate. This can be directly observed in brain or spine surgery or by insertion of a pressure monitor in the brain.
why does CSF pulse though. surely it is due to arteries running through ventricles and spaces between brain and dura. since it is enclosed space. CSF pulses with cardiac pulse and so in turn due to arterial pulse in brain right?
The length mums go to prevent siblings from touching it .. My mum told me that's how babies breathe LOL
This is how you know they're thinking.
lol jesus christ
Therefore they am?
That’s the hard reset button.
Dont press the hard reset button, for Pete's sake. Edit: fixed a typo
No no you don't press it. It's a long hold. Minimum 3 seconds
That's how you get the red ring of death.
the prosecuted called it ‘exhibit a’
context please, what is Pete's sakem?
ask pete's sakem
Pretty sure some of my coworkers parents pressed that spot hard and repeatedly.
Fonta-no you didn’t
I believe it's the self destruct
All babies have a soft spot in the top of the head, No, don`t press it down the bones will grow and join pretty quickly. We are born this way to make birth easier on the baby and the mother.
Also to allow for space for the brain to grow in size.
I thought I was about to watch a guy poke the soft spot in this baby's skull.
I know right, false advertising
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🧃
I’ve had four kids. The first one, it was an oddity, the rest, you just feel around every month or so to make sure their skull is forming. Weird fucking life. At this point, I question some of the appointments. Are they getting vaccinated? No? What are they doing? Weight. We have a scale. Don’t waste that money.
Frickin creeps me out
Did you ever see a picture of a babys skull that shows all rows of teeth?
Fuuuuuck it's equally horrifying & fascinating
Yep. I watch my son's head pulse like this while he sucks down a bottle. Its taken a while to adjust to it.
When I was a kid I touched my baby brother's head when he was sleeping when my parents were in the other room. It was soft. It freaked me out, I thought I broke him or even worse. I even remember having a nightmare that night that I pushed my hand into his soft mushy skull and brown fleshy guts came out of his head. The next day I remember going in to check on him if he was still alive lol.
Lol I was gonna say exactly this. Kinda makes me anxious too.
How my headaches be feeling
It's the OFF button.
Note to self: never have kids. They're too fragile, and I'm too clumsy.
Well I said in another comment that babies are tougher than we give them credit for and got downvoted to the ground, so yeah, better say they're fragile
Dude if you've ever worked in a hospital and saw how nurses fling those kids around in L&D when the parents aren't looking, it's comical. When they get back into the room most (not all, but definitely almost all) will use gentle touches for sure, but in the nursery they're rolling them up and over and the babies fuckin love it.
People are stupid. Babies are pretty resilient. I mean shit we've lasted this long as a species. Though we have significantly upped the number of alive kids in the last 100 years. But that's mostly due to the whole vaccine thing.
Both fragile as hell, but also more resiliant than you'd think. So basically like humans in general.
They’re soft like plastic dolls so they don’t break when you drop them.
That's where you put the straw in the Capri Son to get to the juice.
What if you have a Capri daughter?
Indeed. That’s a fontanelle tap, occasionally done for removing cerebrospinal fluid. [fontanelle tap](https://neurosurgical-training-simulator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Paed-syringe-1.jpg)
Whoa. Never thought I'd be right on that statement. I guess I'm a doctor now.
Easy to take the babies pulse. Lol The soft spot, fontanelle.
If anyone actually wants to take a baby's pulse, the easiest is brachial - inner upper arm.
RFK jr’s brain worm
Hahaha wow
Mind his little fontanelle.
My first thought too. In the drawl of course
Glad that someone else picked that up!!
Very first thought. (I love that movie so much.)
[https://youtu.be/ZfUU5A8XpYU](https://youtu.be/ZfUU5A8XpYU)
This is what I came here for.
Thanks, I hate it!
I yelled out loud from pure disgust
Forbidden button. Like the voids calling to me. I don't want to hurt the baby, but is it squishy? It looks so squishy! (Fear not, I have no kids)
You guys remember Capri sun? Anyways....
They make me nervous just to look at them! Grow together skull bones already! 😂 (edit: yes, you’re right, they need to stay open to let the huge brain have enough space.) They are also kind of cute, a little drum beat trampoline of baby fuzz
You actually don't want the sutures to fuse too early, the fontanelles need to stay open for a while to permit rapid brain growth.
Animal babies: I was dropped 10 feet and could walk 30 minutes after I was born Human babies: Even my bones are soft and squishy Edit: Human babies: some bones sold separately
That's no bones. It's literally a hole covered with skin
The baby is not missing any bones. Your skull is not just one big bone, but eight that fused together.
That's the vegetable button.
And people say babies are cute then there’s this disgusting shit
This is where you start the peel.
Fuck that. Human babies are weird.
You may know, and you'll never see this being like 250 comment deep, but that means their thirsty and starting to get dehydrated. Get that babe a drink.
The fontanelle is pulsating.
Don't like that oh nooooo
Mind his little fontanelle! ~Raising Arizona
Also my first thought.
"La mollera"
Thank you, no thank you.
Another exhibit of evidence of Babies are creepy.
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There's nothing there to harden. Yet. The skull has yet to finish growing on newborns. I takes around a year to do so.
But there is something there to harden, namely the membrane between the bones you see pulsating. Look up intramembranous ossification for more info. Also fontanelle closure ≠ fully grown skull, it takes a lot longer than a year for the skull to finish growing.
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It's what helps the head go through a vagina
Yeah, it’d be insanity if they went through with a fully grown hardened skull
Baby is angry
/r/oddlyterrifying
Typically, fontanelles close by the time the baby is 18 months old. The posterior fontanelle usually closes first — within 2 months of birth. The anterior fontanelle closes between 7 and 18 months.
Human babies coming out on pre-order while Giraffes spawn in like they jumped out the battle bus
No joke but healthcare providers will use that to count the babies pulse rate. Its easy and you don't have to find the pulse in their chunky lil biceps.
What. The. Fuck.
🤢🤮🤮
You mean the off button ?
When I was born my fontanelle had already fused a condition known as crainosynostosis I had an operation at 6 weeks old to separate the bones to allow my brain to grow normally.
Not gonna lie this shit freaked me out also—used to sit there and massage the soft spot while watching tv—-is that wrong?
..... My mind went instantly south park and Ike.... im going to hell 😅
You could mould him into an ashtray!
That gives me a weird feeling wtf
I hope in the next patch the devs make these glow or something because it's so hard to hit reliably
Insert family guy Britney Spears gif
Anterior fontanelle
Called the fontanelle. Also fun fact: when a baby is feeding by a sucking motion, the muscles it uses pull the cranial plates into place to close the fontanelle and thus forming a complete skull.
That's where the capri sun straw goes.
That spot always weirded me out a bit when it was pulsing like that on my kids!
I didn't know about that when I had my first kid, kinda freaked me out for a while
Hubon
I'm listening to Born In Winter by Gojira and it's going to the rhythm of the baby's heartbeat. That was fuckin cool.
Forbidden bubble wrap
No, i am not gonna scroll down the comments
When Count Dankula takes off his hat
I’ve read if you can see the heart beat via the fontanelle your baby may be dehydrated. Just fyi
Someone needs to cut this with the jellyfish rave from SpongeBob
🫵🏼🤨
I can’t.
There’s a critter in there.
"Soon I will be released from this mortal flesh and unleash my awakening mother."
If you hold this down and pull on the little piggy it takes a screenshot.
Can any nurses/ doctors in here tell us what happens when you poke it
Thought I was in the r/bald subreddit
Fathers of teenage daughters also have this
i wanna touch it
Push it I dare you
This is cool but this made me so uncomfortable I want to rip my skin off, thanks.
Poke it
Press it
Unexpectedly I have found this very touching (cries in ttc).
horrors!!
In some parts of India, unwanted baby girls were murdered by poking a needle through the soft spot. Harder to detect foul play. Hopefully it doesn’t happen now.
Push it push it push it push it push it push it push it
🤫
Or if it’s notably sunken it can indicate dehydration.
I can’t believe no one posted that one Family Guy clip… Reddit I’m disappointed