Every year, newborn babies are readmitted into the hospital because of a condition known as jaundice, which causes the skin to turn yellow. In fact, of all newborn readmitted cases, jaundice is the number one cause. The good news about jaundice is that because the skin turns a strange yellowish color, it is easy to spot, diagnose, and treat.
What happens with jaundice babies is that the bilirubin, which is a yellow pigment that babies typically produce, actually builds up within the blood so when excessive bilirubin is produced, more than the liver can handle, jaundice occurs. While this might sound scary, the truth is that 80% of all newborns have some level of jaundice. In the majority of those cases, the baby’s body automatically balances out and the skin returns to normal pinkish color.
Once in a while, which is estimated by experts to be only two to three in 10,000 births, the level of jaundice is severe enough to cause concern. In this case, the baby is placed under warming lights that help balance the bilirubin out to normal levels. In fact, my own son had jaundice, which was not detected until his second day of life. At that time, mothers usually stayed in the hospital for three to five days. He was placed under the lights and within two days, his levels were fine and we went home the next day.
Today, newborn babies are sent home anywhere from 24 to 48 hours, much quicker than when my son was born. Because of this, doctors may prefer to do special but standard and inexpensive testing to detect jaundice. Obviously, they wouldn’t want parents to go home, notice some yellowing of the baby’s skin, but not do anything about it. After blood has been drawn in this case, if levels are off, then the baby would likely need to stay longer, again to be placed under warming lights, also known as “bili lights”, which provide the baby with needed phototherapy.
As a mother, nothing can be done to stop jaundice from occurring, just as you have not done anything to cause it. The good news is that if your newborn baby has jaundice, chances are in his or her favor that a few days treatment is all that is needed. At this point, you would simply take your baby home to enjoy. On very rare occasion, serious cases do occur but again, the chances are so few that this is not something that you should lose sleep over. With a good doctor, any potential signs would be noticed and treatment provided.