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January 14, 2005

Strange But True!

Q. A just-born baby comes packaged in vernix caseosa, Latin for "cheesy varnish." What is it and what does it do?

A. It's the milky-colored slick substance that covers Baby's skin, composed of dead cells, oil from sebaceous glands, temporary downy hair, and traces of Mom's chemical exposures, says Cynthia F. Bearer, M.D., Ph.D., pediatrician and neuroscientist at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. True, it acts as lubricant for Baby's stage entrance but also serves to "waterproof" the fetus during the critical last trimester and to guard against microbes and other assaults. Though Baby is cleaned up very soon after birth, care is often taken not to wash off all the coating, which just may be Baby's first line of defense against the dry and cool extrauterine environment.


 
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