Are babies born without kneecaps?

No matter how many times a toddler falls when they try to run around the room, they would not seem to break a bone or hurt themselves badly. They climb, jump and run for hours, and occasionally fall on their knees, but after a bout of crying they return back to their normal activities. Does a baby have a soft bone? Do new born babies have kneecaps? These are some basic questions which a parent may need to ponder about.

Does the concept of baby knee caps does not exist at all?

Yes, babies have kneecaps at birth for sure. But they tend to be much softer than an adult knee cap. As a baby you tend to have all the bones that an adult tends to have, but they are much softer and strong enough to support their bodies. The skeletons tend to made of immature bone and the cartilages will tend to grow, become stronger with the passage of time. By the time they reach the stage of adulthood the bones would have reached their final size, and gained more strength.

Do babies not possess kneecaps at the time of birth? The knee cap also referred to as patella emerges to be a soft cartilage, in the new born baby. By the time they tend to reach the age of 3 to 35 years, irregular patches of bone tend to immerge in forming the bone patella. These patches of bone are expanded which grows together over the years, forming into a fully developed knee cap by the time of 10 to 12 years. Some amount of cartilage still remains, that paves way for continuous growth of the knee cap throughout the childhood days. When the bones are expanded fully, cartilage is replacing and the net result is a fully developed knee cap.

The process of development of kneecaps?

Babies possess kneecaps at birth but bones start forming from a cartilage, which are cartilages at the time of birth itself. These cartilages forms bone over a period of time known as ossification. Once a baby is born, the kneecaps consists of soft cartilage, which remains over a period of time. This is the main reason on why toddlers do not break their knees even if they fall at that point of time. The reason for it is that their knees are sponges and they do absorb compression along with pressure when they fall.

By the time they reach ages 3 to 5, the cartilages start leading to bony kneecaps. After a considerable amount of time, the bones begin to lose their bounce and then the spills start to become more painful and this is till the skeleton starts creaking just like an adult.

Some other interesting facts of your baby is that the maximum amount of growth is witnessed in the first year of their birth. This cannot be sustained for the rest of their life as by then they would become as tall as a tree. The babies can also see your face as well.