My son wants to know, Why can't we touch the baby soft spot

Question

He just had a lil curiosity on that and I told him because its not good to touch it and he will get sick. anymore explaination to give him

Answer 1

Because there's no skull there, just brain under the skin.  

Answer 2

In a baby the skull isn't fully formed and leaves room for the baby's head and brain to continue to grow. Where the soft spot is has no skull there, so when you touch it, you are actually touching the babies brain.

Simply touching a brain can cause brain damage. It won't make the baby sick, but it could cause all sorts of brain damage and troubles. It could cause troubles with speach, learning, walking and other problems.

A very light touch that is controlled should not cause these issues. But another child rarely knows how to touch in the correct manner. Hence, we forbid the touching of the soft spot.

As the child gets older the brain finishes fusing together and becomes solid.  

Answer 3

It can hurt the babys brain. Lightly tap on his head and say see how ur head is hard and your bones cover you brain to keep it smart. The babys bones arent done growing over the barin to keep him smart yet.  

Answer 4

The people acting like one tiny tap is going to do permanent brain damage are being overly cautious. The brain is not literally directly under the skin, there is some tough connective tissue in between. Jabbing your thumb in there certainly is not reccommended, but simply running your hand over the spot is not going to do any harm.  I agree that a supervised touching of the spot will satisfy his curiosity without risking harm.

Answer 5

because it will hurt he baby since his skull is still becoming hard and it's like skin to press it the skin that protects his brain

Answer 6

Chances are his curiosity is not going to be settled until he touches it.  So tell him that he has to be VERY gently because there is no bone there to to keep the baby's head safe.  Then you gently guide your hand over the soft spot and then take his hand and guide it over the soft spot.  Hopefully that will end his curiosity.

Answer 7

tell him it will hurt the baby very badly if he touches it

Answer 8

He can touch it but he can't push on it.  If you tell him he can't touch it at all he eventually will and it probably won't be very gently.  I would let him gently touch it once and tell him that it's best to not do it again because the baby prefers to be touched on his cheek or something like that.

Edit: To all those that say you can't touch it at all, you will hurt his brain, etc.  How do you shampoo your babies hair?  I assume you touch their head right?

Answer 9

Because it could kill him.

It's true and why take a chance that the kid will try to sneak a push on that soft spot behind your back? I'd scare him into not touching it!

Pippin where are you getting your information from?? Pushing on the soft spot can cause a lot of damage depending on the amount of force used. A toddler can be unintentionally rough and could cause brain damage to the baby or death.

Answer 10

There is no reason he can't touch the soft spot.  No harm will be done.

EDIT:  Pushing or jabbing hard on the soft spot could potentially be risky.  Touching it is not.  (And I would seriously doubt that any toddler would be strong enough to do harm. There is a LOT of space between the scalp and the brain, and a thick membrane in between.)

I can't find ANY cites that say you should never touch the soft spot -- and many, including this one, that say you can.

http://family.go.com/parentpedia/baby/we...

Answer 11

Because the skull hasn't finished growing together on the top of the babies head.