Vernix Health Dictionary

The white, cheese-like substance covering a newborn baby.

Vernix comprises fatty secretions and dead cells.

It protects the skin, insulates against heat loss before birth, and lubricates the baby’s passage down the birth canal.

The white, cheese-like substance that covers the skin of a newborn infant. It consists of dead cells in a fatty secretion, protects the infant’s skin, and helps lubricate its passage through the cervix and vagina during delivery.