Lanugo - Pregnancy

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Lanugo

hairy guinea pig

No you’re baby will NOT look like this!
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Lanugo is a downy hair which covers your baby between week 14 and week 30 of pregnancy and which should be completely shed by week 38. It is a normal part of all pregnancies and is how your baby keeps warm before he begins to develop fat.

The fetus usually ends up drinking the shed lanugo hair as it mixes with the amniotic fluid he drinks throughout your pregnancy. This is nothing to worry about mum, your baby won’t get hairballs!

Premature babies are often born with all of their lanugo hair, but overtime the lanugo will fall off. There have also been a few recorded cases in which full-term babies were born with their lanugo hair. Again mums you don’t need to be worried. Lanugo is not a medical condition and it should all disappear by the third or fourth month of your baby’s life.

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