WHY DO BABIES HAVE MORE BONES THAN ADULTS???

The fact that babies have more bones than adults can come as a surprise to those who aren't already aware. Your surprise is understandable; everyone who has ever kept a baby in their arms will attest to how tender their bodies are. Given this, it seems unlikely that those tiny arms, head, and torso may contain more bones than an adult's body. Adults often have a tendency to feel 'bony,' so this is an odd fact.

Why do adults have fewer bones than infants, one may wonder? What happens to the extra bones?

What Is the Number of Bones in a Baby?
Now comes the question of how many more bones babies have than adults! What is the solution? Approximately 90-95 bones more! A baby has about 300 bones when they are born, while an adult has 206 bones. There is no disputing the fact that babies have far more bones than adults. The explanation for this can be traced back to cartilage.

Cartilage is a form of rubbery padding that protects and covers the ends of long bones at joints. It's essentially a smooth, elastic tissue located in the head, rib cage, nose, and other parts of the body. Cartilage lacks the strength and flexibility of bone and muscle.

Forms of cartilage
Cartilage is divided into three types: articular cartilage, articular cartilage, and articular cartilage Elastic cartilage may be found in the external ear flaps and parts of the larynx, while hyaline cartilage can be found in the nose, neck, trachea, parts of the larynx, and smaller respiratory tubes. Fibrous cartilage may be found in the spine and menisci. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org)
Babies are less bony for a reason: if they were fully "hardened," delivery would be nearly impossible. Infants' bodies must be incredibly soft and limber in order for them to be born at all!

Adults have less bones than babies due to ossification, or the conversion of cartilage into bone.
Endochondral ossification is a process that occurs when cartilage (rather than bone) is present at birth, but it eventually transforms into bone over time. This is an essential part of a fetus's growth because it contributes to the formation of bone tissue in the body. Bone matrices replace cartilage as the baby grows. Calcium salts (which are obtained from the baby's diet) are laid here to form hardened bones. This is why adults have fewer bones than infants, since many tiny bony segments fuse together to form a single bone in babies.

There are some physical indicators that explain why there is such a gap in the number of bones between babies and adults. The'soft spot' on babies' heads is a clear example of this. It's likely that you've been advised not to push it because it might deform the baby's head or trigger internal injuries. The soft spot, however, magically vanishes as the baby grows!

This occurs as the various small bone segments fuse together over time to form fewer, yet larger and stronger bones. As a result, if a baby's skull has eight tiny bony segments at the age of one or two years, the number would decrease to four as the baby grows older.

Bones: A Few Interesting Facts:
The V-shaped bone at the base of the tongue, the hyoid, is the only bone in the body that isn't attached to anything else.
The femur (located in the upper thigh) is the longest bone in the human body, while the stapes (located in the ear) is the shortest.

While bones stop increasing in length when a person reaches puberty, their strength and density change over time.
The arms are the most frequently fractured bones in the human body, accounting for almost half of all broken bones.
One-fifth of a typical human's body mass is made up of the skeleton.

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