How many bones does a human have?

When a child is born, the skeleton looks very different from that of adults. The proportions are different, but the number of bones also differs. How can this be? Children grow because their bones get longer, this happens at the ends of the bones. There are the growth plates that contain cartilage cells. These multiply and so the bone grows little by little. Over time, the growth plates get thinner and thinner and eventually they will grow closed. When they are closed, you have grown. Girls grow to about sixteen years of age, for boys this takes a little longer: until they are eighteen.

The skeleton of adults consists of 206 bones, while children are born with 350 bones. The bones of a child are slightly more apart from birth. This makes the baby more flexible and the birth can go more smoothly. Some bones grow together. Bones also develop later in life. For example, children up to the age of two only have two ankle bones. During the growth spurt there is a great stretch of muscles and tendons at their attachment to the bones. Bones grow faster than muscles and this causes the stretching of the muscles and tendons. The stretch is probably causing the pain. This is known to most people as growing pains.

Relationships

The proportions of the bones also change with age. Because not all bones grow at the same rate, the proportions of the body change. This is best seen on the head, as the body is smaller. The baby’s head is a place where many bones are not yet joined together. When the baby is one to one and a half years old, the bones have grown together and the skull consists of one whole.

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