do you know much about jaundice?

[luvmyfam444]

Dc has jaundice & I'm wondering about it - she has been on a light @ home for about a week - her #s went down from 19 to 13.5 (that was over several days) but then today her # jumped back up to 15....I read online that the #s don't usually go back up once they've come down....BUT she slept last night about 3.5-4hrs so she didn't eat as often - but she was content so I didn't wake her.....
ANYONE have any experience/knowledge about this I'd like to read about it = dr isn't concerned but I am since the # has gone up...

 

[lyeag]

My second child had jaundice. I do know that breastfeeding is good for it. Also, I would try to keep her near a sunny window in only a diaper to help. I would hold her so her back would be exposed to the light as it is a larger area of skin. I honestly can't remember about the numbers. She wasn't quite bad enough to go under the lights, but she was so ruddy I called her a peanut butter cookie. She was the color of a Nutter Butter. It took quite a while for it work itself out, a few weeks if I remember right. She is very fair skinned with red hair, so the dark skin in her newborn pictures is very obvious. Good Luck, and call your ped if you have concerns. They are used to mothers of newborns having all kinds of questions.

 

[Corky's Mom]

My son had jaundice and was on the lights. We called him our little glow worm. We did have to wake hime up every couple of hours to feed him. He was so lathargic that our ped had us undress him and thump his feet to keep him awake enough to eat. I would sob as I did it because it broke my heart! But his numbers did go down after about a week and we could take him off the machine and just put him near a window. It did take a while to get his numbers totally normal. Hang in there!

 

[wdwmom2]

The spiking of the bilirubin number frequently happens, definately not uncommon. It is important that your little one eats, even if they want to sleep. Just listen to your doc, he/she knows best!!!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

My daughter was a positive Coombs test baby.

She developed jaundice after birth. With each day of life--the threshhold increased for how high her numbers could go. While her levels climbed she was just shy of needing the bili-light. After her relase--for the next week or two we took her for regular blood tests. It did a teeter totter climb (up/down/up/down--but on a climb). I don't recall the real #'s. I just remember that even though the number went up--the day before that number would need the light--but as she got older---the threshhold went up.

Hope that gives some insight. I'm not a nurse--that was just our experience. (And I will never forgot the appearance of her heels from all those heel pricks ).

ETA: We nursed and did the window. In the hospital they made us do formula but the moment I got home I stopped. I don't recommend regularly going AMA--but this was not her regular doctor (mine was on vacation and our backup didn't have pediatric privileges as we thought hospital priviliges would be sufficient). Once we got out and went the next day to see doc--we I asked and was told that as long as she was improving that I didn't have to continue---so we didn't. She "may" have been able to improve faster--but she was nursing successfully. Ended up she doesn't poop a lot and what they proclaimed formula would help her do---in retrospect didn't help and wouldn't have helped. We later had her tested and was told she was on the far left of the bell curve pooping only 2-3 weeks. (Never in my life did I think I would the arrival of a poopy diaper). So in hindsight---b/c of her positive coombs test results combined with her natural ability to go a long length of time between BM's---she developed jaundice and took a little longer than normal to recover.

 

[Sherri]

My son also had jaundice but that was 14 1/2 years ago so I don't no if things have changed. He did the light thearpy and the numbrs flucuated but finally he could take off his glow worm gear and he was perfectly fine.
You will get through this and your child will be fine. It sounds like they are on top of things.

 

[cats7494]

Both of my daughter's had it. DD12 had the lights and she got better. My dd13weeks - her numbers went down on their own.
They recommend that you feed often - not to let them sleep for too long. That way they can get rid of the excess bilirubin in their system faster through their waste. Breastfeeding also helps tremendously.
I fed dd every 2 hours and it helped. We also sat her in sunlight in only her diaper.
She is below in my siggie and is doing just fine now. Good luck!

 

[jennyl772003]

DS had jaundice. At 3 days he went back to the hospital and went under the lights. 3 days later his numbers were down enough for us to be realeased. Then they went up again.

I know this is controversial, but my DS had breast milk jaundice. After I put him on formula, his jaundice went away.

 

[Tanuki]

Two things - if the baby isn't close enough to the light the effectiveness of the treatment is a lot less. Make sure you are following the recommendations for how close the light is supposed to be - measure it with a measuring tape.

Make sure the baby is staying well hydrated - frequent wet diapers and gaining weight are good ways to follow hydration.

There are two components to the bilirubin test - conjugated and unconjugated (also called direct and indirect). The direct can be a little high at first but it should go down to normal. You want to be sure the direct is normalizing even if the indirect is high. The light only works for the indirect. If your problem is a rising direct your Pediatrician will need to do something else - like talk to a specialist.

 

[nuke]

My son had it pretty severe. His numbers were in the high 20's and we were warned of all sorts of horrible things. He had to have a double volume blood transfusion to take care of the problem. He is perfectly fine now. The doctors were pretty sure it was from the breast milk.

 

[princesspumpkin]

In my 20 years working as a maternity nurse, I have found that yes, bilirubin results do go up and down (depending on the frequency of the feed and pooping in between the testing). Breast vs. bottleding (relating to decreasing the bilirubin level) is still argued. What I have found is that if the breastmilk isn't in yet, the baby poops less, therefore the bili isn't flushed out as quickly. Thus, formula is recommended. Once a mom's milk is fully in, the baby tends to poop almost every feed, so there really is no need for the formula. And, sometimes, no matter what you do, the bili just takes it's sweet old time coming down. Just my two cents.

 

[disneymom3]

Youngest had jaundice pretty bad and we actually got a light blanket to wrap him in. well, we were prescribed the little light box too but he wouldn't lay there and couldn't sleep there so we bailed on it. When we had gone in for his follow up blood test, his doc was not in and the other dr prescribed the box and the blanket. Two days later when we went back in, I confessed to our dr that we hadn't been using the box just had him in the blanket all the time and she was totally shocked that the other Dr had prescribed the light box. She thought it was too extreme and unlikely to get the baby to be in it very well.

Anyway, the blanket worked awesome and I could then hold him and he was getting the treatment even when he was being fed or anything else. She (our own ped.) also had us very gently putting a thermometer in his rectum just like you would to do a temp check of a newborn. This caused his muscles to try and poop and he would get rid of some of the newborn black poop and according to her, this would help clear it up.