POINTED HEAD (MOLDING)
The bones that make up your baby's skull are designed to move around so that the head can pass through a tight space when the baby is born. In fact the skull bones look like big pieces of a puzzle: they fit together, but they are not firmly attached.
When a baby hangs upside down and low in her mom's pelvis for days (or weeks), the bones of her skull mold to fit the mom's pelvis. This is why many newborn babies have pointed heads -- a phenomenon called molding. This is a good strategy for a delivering baby because it may help her to pass through a very narrow birth canal.
Some babies do not hang upside down in the pelvis for long, so they have perfectly round heads at birth. This is especially true among babies born by cesarean section.
The fact that the bones of a baby's skull can move around allows humans to have rapid brain growth, not just while developing inside the womb but after birth as well. In the first two years of life, the human head grows an average of 40 percent, allowing a newborn to be delivered while her brain is still quite immature. In fact humans are the only species born with brains that are so immature that a baby is entirely dependent upon a parent.
Molding lasts only a few days after the baby is born. Remarkably the head rounds itself out quickly once a baby has been delivered. Within a week the head assumes a standard round shape, with a soft spot at the very top toward the front and another, smaller soft spot at the top toward the back.
Soft spots
These spots -- called fontanels -- are simply normal spaces between the bones of the skull. They allow for even more growth of the brain and skull after birth. The fontanel at the back of the head typically closes between two and twelve weeks of life; the one at the top of the head usually closes sometime between six and 18 months of age.
What can I do?
Parents do not need to do anything to resolve molding. The head will usually round itself out. However, in some cases, parts of the skull become flat over time. To avoid this, you should put your baby down to sleep on her back, with the head in slightly different positions throughout the day and night.
Sometimes the head is turned to one side, sometimes to the other, and sometimes it is placed in the middle. This strategy, which allows the head to continue to round itself out.
What are the treatments?
Head molding does not require treatment; it will resolve itself. However, to avoid future flattening of certain parts of your baby's head, you should rotate her sleep position so that she is not continually resting on one part of her head.
What are the possible complications?
There are no complications from head molding. It resolves quickly on its own.
Additional resources
www.cdc.gov/ncha/about/major/nhanes/growthcharts/charts
