Question 1

Why do babies have a soft spot on their head?

Accepted Answer

The soft spots are **fontanelles** — gaps where the skull bones have not yet fused, covered by tough membrane. They exist for two reasons, both essential.

**Birth.** A baby's head is the widest part to pass through the birth canal. Unfused skull plates can **overlap and shift** during delivery, temporarily narrowing the head. This is why many newborns have a slightly cone-shaped or moulded head for the first days — it resolves on its own.

**Brain growth.** The brain roughly doubles in volume in the first year. A fused skull could not accommodate that. Open sutures and fontanelles allow the skull to expand with the brain beneath it.

**There are two main fontanelles:**

**The posterior fontanelle**, at the back, is small and typically closes by around **two months**.

**The anterior fontanelle**, on top and diamond-shaped, is the one people notice. It usually closes between **9 and 18 months**, though the range is wide.

**What is normal:** a flat or very slightly curved surface; visible pulsation matching the heartbeat, which is entirely normal and simply blood flow; and slight bulging when a baby cries, strains or lies down, settling when calm and upright.

**Touching it is fine.** The membrane is genuinely tough, and normal handling, washing and brushing hair will not hurt the baby. Many parents avoid the area unnecessarily, and cradle cap is often worse there as a result.

**When to seek medical advice:**

**A sunken fontanelle** in a settled baby can indicate **dehydration**, particularly alongside fewer wet nappies, dry mouth or lethargy. This warrants prompt assessment.

**A bulging, tense fontanelle** in a calm, upright baby — especially with fever, vomiting, unusual drowsiness, a high-pitched cry or a rash — needs **urgent** medical attention, as it can indicate raised pressure inside the skull.

**Very early or very late closure** is worth mentioning at a routine check.

Question 2

What is tummy time and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

Tummy time is supervised time a baby spends on their front while awake. It matters because babies now spend far more time on their backs than they used to, and that change had an unintended

Question 3

When do children lose their baby teeth?

Accepted Answer

Usually starting around age six, and finishing somewhere between 11 and 13, though the normal range is wide and early or late is rarely a problem in itself. The usual sequence tends to mirror the

Question 4

Why do newborn babies get jaundice, and when does it matter?

Accepted Answer

Because a newborn produces bilirubin faster than an immature liver can clear it, and the excess colours the skin and eyes yellow. Most jaundice is normal and resolves without treatment — but a small

Question 5

What is the difference between baby-led weaning and spoon feeding?

Accepted Answer

Two approaches to starting solids: one offers graspable pieces of food the baby feeds themselves, the other offers purées on a spoon, with textures increasing over time. The evidence does not

Question 6

Why do newborns grip your finger so tightly?

Accepted Answer

That is the palmar grasp reflex, one of several primitive reflexes newborns are born with — automatic, involuntary responses that emerge and then disappear on a fairly predictable schedule. The

Question 7

Why will my baby only sleep when held?

Accepted Answer

Because from the baby's perspective, being held is the normal and expected condition — and the preference has a coherent biological explanation rather than being a habit you accidentally created. Why

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