What is Lanugo?

Troy Stewart recently wrote a hub about his son Jr. and how he was covered with hair when he was born. I decided to write a quick hub on what was happening with this, as he called him, "hairy baby".

Many babies, born before their due date, still have soft, downy hair called lanugo covering their bodies. In fact, in Latin, Lanugo means down. At around five months gestation the fetal hair follicles produce this first hair or lanugo. Babies that are born at term have usually shed most of this hair inside the womb, usually around the seventh or eighth month. Lanugo is believed to help keep the baby warm; at an early gestation, babies do not have a lot of fat stores and the lanugo may help maintain an appropriate body temperature.