Baby Bones

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This in turn prompts cells called osteoblasts to develop along the lining of the cartilage. These osteoblasts in the cartilage begin producing compact bone, which covers the cartilage. Next, blood vessels begin to spread throughout the cartilage, branching off the nutrient artery and enabling marrow and other nutrients to be dispersed throughout the developing bone. When this occurs, it prompts the development of a primary ossification center, which will continue producing cells that dissolve the cartilage and replace it with new bone.

The patella is a sesamoid bone. The patella is the largest sesamoid bone in your body. Although it doesn't show up on X-rays , your baby does in fact have kneecaps.

Do babies have kneecaps?

They're just not bony kneecaps. At birth, these kneecaps are still cartilage, and remain so for a few years. So all those spills and falls your toddler is taking aren't going to be knee-breakers, just sponge-compressors. By the time your child is anywhere from 3 to 5 years old, those cartilage plates will have fully ossified into big-kid kneecaps, made of real bone.

And every year after that, as that bone loses its bounce, those thrills and spills will get progressively less fun until those grown-up babies are creaking and groaning with the rest of us. Take Care of Those Hammies. Children Can Regrow Their Fingertips. How Cool Is That? Top 10 Biggest Bodybuilders. The spine is special because it isn't made of one or even two bones: It's made of 33 bones in all! These bones are called vertebrae say: VER-tuh-bray and each one is shaped like a ring. In between each vertebra the name for just one of the vertebrae are small disks made of cartilage.

These disks keep the vertebrae from rubbing against one another, and they also act as your spine's natural shock absorbers.

When you jump in the air, or twist while slamming a dunk, the disks give your vertebrae the cushioning they need. Your heart, lungs, and liver are all very important, and luckily you've got ribs to keep them safe. Ribs act like a cage of bones around your chest.

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It's easy to feel the bottom of this cage by running your fingers along the sides and front of your body, a few inches below your heart. If you breathe in deeply, you can easily feel your ribs right in the front of your body, too. Some thin kids can even see a few of their ribs right through their skin. Your ribs come in pairs, and the left and right sides of each pair are exactly the same. Most people have 12 pairs of ribs, but some people are born with one or more extra ribs, and some people might have one pair less.

All 12 pairs of ribs attach in the back to the spine, where they are held in place by the thoracic vertebrae. The first seven pairs of ribs attach in the front to the sternum say: STUR-num , a strong bone in the center of your chest that holds those ribs in place. The remaining sets of ribs don't attach to the sternum directly.

The next three pairs are held on with cartilage to the ribs above them.

The very last two sets of ribs are called floating ribs because they aren't connected to the sternum or the ribs above them. But don't worry, these ribs can't ever float away. Like the rest of the ribs, they are securely attached to the spine in the back. Your skull protects the most important part of all, the brain. You can feel your skull by pushing on your head, especially in the back a few inches above your neck.

The skull is actually made up of different bones. Some of these bones protect your brain, whereas others make up the structure of your face. If you touch beneath your eyes, you can feel the ridge of the bone that forms the hole where your eye sits. And although you can't see it, the smallest bone in your whole body is in your head, too. The stirrup bone behind your eardrum is only. Want to know something else? Your lower jawbone is the only bone in your head you can move.

It opens and closes to let you talk and chew food.

How Many Bones Does a Baby Have?

Your skull is pretty cool, but it's changed since you were a baby. All babies are born with spaces between the bones in their skulls. This allows the bones to move, close up, and even overlap as the baby goes through the birth canal. As the baby grows, the space between the bones slowly closes up and disappears, and special joints called sutures say: SOO-churs connect the bones.

As you sit and type at the keyboard, while you swing on a swing, even when you pick up your lunch, you're using the bones in your fingers, hand, wrist, and arm. Each arm is attached to a shoulder blade or scapula say: SKA-pyuh-luh , a large triangular bone on the upper back corner of each side of the ribcage. The arm is made up of three bones: HYOO-muh-rus , which is above your elbow, and the radius say: RAY-dee-us and ulna say: UL-nuh , which are below the elbow. Each of these bones is wider at the ends and skinnier in the middle, to help give it strength where it meets another bone.

At the end of the radius and ulna are eight smaller bones that make up your wrist. Although these bones are small, they can really move! Twist your wrist around or wave and you'll see how the wrist can move. The center part of your hand is made up of five separate bones.

Each finger on your hand has three bones, except for your thumb, which has two. So between your wrists, hands, and all your fingers, you've got a grand total of 54 bones — all ready to help you grasp things, write your name, pick up the phone, or throw a softball!

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Sure, your arm, wrist, hand, and finger bones are great for picking up the phone, but how are you supposed to run to answer it? Well, with the bones of the legs and feet!

Your legs are attached to a circular group of bones called your pelvis. The pelvis is a bowl-shaped structure that supports the spine.

It is made up of the two large hip bones in front, and behind are the sacrum and the coccyx. The pelvis acts as a tough ring of protection around parts of the digestive system, parts of the urinary system, and parts of the reproductive system. Your leg bones are very large and strong to help support the weight of your body. The bone that goes from your pelvis to your knee is called the femur say: FEE-mur , and it's the longest bone in your body.

At the knee, there's a triangular-shaped bone called the patella say: Below the knee are two other leg bones: TIH-bee-uh and the fibula say: Just like the three bones in the arm, the three bones in the leg are wider at the ends than in the middle to give them strength. The ankle is a bit different from the wrist; it is where the lower leg bones connect to a large bone in the foot called the talus say:

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