Do Newborn Babies Have Kneecap?

Have you ever tried crawling on the floor? You will find pain on your knees. But, babies don’t. Even when they fall on the floor with their knees; instead of crying they often smile. How does it happen? Don’t they have a bone in their knees? Are babies born with kneecaps? To know the answers of these questions you need to know the knee anatomy of a newborn baby. Let us take a quick look at the following discussion.

Do babies have kneecap when they are born?

The important joint of the knee is formed at the intersection of the femur (the thigh bone), the tibia (the shinbone), and the patella (the kneecap). A quadriceps is a group of muscles that extend down to the length of the femur. The quadriceps muscles taper off into a resilient piece of connective tissue called quadriceps tendon that embeds and fixes to the top of the kneecap. This connective tissue on the other side of the kneecap which is called patella ligament extends downward to connect the bottom of the kneecap to the top of the tibia (the shinbone). Thus, the kneecap lies in a groove below the femur and helps you to move your leg forward and backward. The most interesting fact is this when an x-ray is taken of a toddler; the kneecap is not visible within that groove which creates a common misconception that babies do not have kneecap at the time of birth. The culprit behind this misconception is the cartilage that presents in the kneecap of the just born babies instead of bone. This cartilage during the course of baby’s growth converts into bone.

When and how the kneecaps of babies develop and when converts into bone?

Yes, this is a common query to everyone. A baby’s kneecap starts developing from the sixteenth week of the gestation period within the mother’s womb. The kneecap then would be found cartilaginous. This is called cartilaginous patella. In fact, a baby starts out growing within the mother’s womb with a skeletal mix of about 300 various bones and cartilaginous elements which come down to 206 bones in adult converting the cartilaginous elements into bones. This mechanism of conversion of cartilage to bone is termed as ossification. And, during ossification, a nutrient artery grows into the cartilage. This nutrient artery develops cells called osteoblasts along the line of the cartilage. Blood vessels, during this process, start spreading throughout the cartilage and in turn osteoblasts cover the cartilage and finally produce bone. When this process is going on an ossification center is developed within the region controlling the production of more and more osteoblasts cells that ultimately dissolve the cartilage and forms bone. Sue to the presence of cartilaginous content instead of solid bone a newborn baby’s kneecap does not find in the x-ray plate. By the age, anywhere between 3-5 years, thebaby kneecaps have fully ossified and turned into solid bone. Before that sponge-compressor like the cartilaginous content of kneecaps do not make any harm to the baby while falls on the floor with knees.