Pulsating fontanelles

I was pretty sure a small alien was going to bore its way out of my child’s head when I saw a spot on top of his head start pulsating. We were giving him a bath when I noticed the movement in his anterior fontanelle (front soft spot). It creeped me out a little to be perfectly frank.

The first thing I did as soon as he was dry was look up the phenomenon on the Internet, and apparently it’s normal for the fontanelles to pulsate with heartbeat or while crying. This is what I found on Pedialliance.com:

It is perfectly normal for the diamond-shaped fontanelle to pulsate with each heartbeat. This pulsating action is how the soft spot got its name – fontanelle means “little fountain.” On the other hand, the shape of the baby’s soft spot can sometimes indicate a serious disease. If an infant with fever is found to have a bulging, or full soft spot, that could be due to increased pressure from meningitis. This fullness can also happen when the baby cries. A sunken or depressed fontanelle in an infant who is vomiting or has diarrhea could mean the baby is severely dehydrated.