Jaundice in newborns is not a disease. Don't worry if your baby's skin turns yellow right after birth. This is the so-called physiological jaundice, which occurs in 60-70% of patients. full-term newborns and 90 percent of premature babies around 24 hours of age.

Physiological jaundice( neonatal jaundice ) is part of the natural processes that take place in the baby's body right after birth. A newborn baby has more than 6 million red blood cells in the bloodstream - this is all it takes to get enough oxygen in the baby's bladder. However, when it begins to breathe on its own, this amount of red blood cells is unnecessary. Under the influence of increased oxygen pressure reaching the blood while breathing, erythrocytes age and break down faster, releasing large amounts of hemoglobin. This accumulates in the liver and gradually turns into bilirubin. A newborn's immature liver is only able to process some of the bilirubin it has accumulated: the rest goes back into the bloodstream, staining the skin and mucous membranes. The higher its concentration, the more yellow the baby's skin becomes.

Physiological jaundice: treatment

In most cases, there is nothing to worry about - jaundice will end by itself by the 10th day of life of the baby (in premature babies it lasts longer, even up to a month). In 50 percent of breastfed babies, yellowing of the skin lasts up to 12 weeks of age. This is because there are substances in breast milk that inhibit the maturation of digestive enzymes, so that instead of going into the baby's urine and stools, bilirubin goes back into the bloodstream. Usually there is no cause for concern, but your child must be monitored by a doctor.

If jaundice is severe and prolonged, doctors use phototherapy, i.e. blue or white light radiation, which gradually reduces bilirubin levels.

Note: during irradiation the child must have eyes covered, and the boys' testicles must be covered. Some doctors sometimes recommend that you wean your baby for 2 days from the breast and give him a hypoallergenic formula.

You must do it

Contact your doctor when:

  • jaundice will disappear and reappear
  • jaundice will worsen after 7 days instead of going away
  • baby's skin is yellowlonger than 10-14 days

Dangerous pathological jaundice

Sometimes a child develops pathological jaundice. A doctor recognizes it during a routine examination of a child - usually a child with pathological jaundice is born very yellow.

Early diagnosed and properly treated pathological jaundice does not cause any complications.

It is often accompanied by other disturbing symptoms: worse appetite, abnormal weight gain and abnormal laboratory test results. It can be caused by:

  • serological conflict, when the antibodies produced by the mother's body attack and destroy the baby's red blood cells
  • congenital defect of red blood cells
  • infection with bacteria or viruses (most often rubella, herpes and cytomegaly) and protozoan toxoplasmosis or serious inflammation, e.g. sepsis, pneumonia.

In each of these cases, tests and specialized treatment are necessary, because pathological jaundice is dangerous for the child. Huge amounts of bilirubin circulating in the blood can reach the subcortical part of the brain and permanently damage the central nervous system. The baby must be treated in hospital and the treatment depends on the baby's age and the severity of the jaundice. In extreme cases (when the child's life is at risk, e.g. due to a severe serological conflict or a very high amount of bilirubin), a transfusion is necessary, thanks to which not only excess bilirubin is removed from the child's body, but also antibodies that destroy red blood cells.

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