Are babies born with knee caps?
Babies are not born with kneecaps. A patella is a sesamoid bone that develops from the pressure caused by habitual walking. Most of the time, the patella appears at about 2 years of age. If a child has a developmental defect and is never able to walk, he/she will never develop a kneecap. Many bones are not developmentally complete at birth. Most people know about the skull and the “soft spots,” but that’s just one example. Long bones (in the arms and legs) are formed by a cartilage anlagen that slowly ossifies – but a “growth plate” of cartilage remains at each end of the long bone until the end of adolescence. Each vertebra is in three pieces at birth.
