Excessive levels of bilirubin in a newborn's bloodstream cause jaundice in many otherwise healthy babies. In most cases, the jaundice clears on its own, while other babies need light therapy to clear it up. Extremely high levels of bilirubin that go untreated can cause severe side effects, including brain damage, cerebral palsy or deafness.
Time Frame
A newborn has more bilirubin but his liver is not always developed enough to effectively remove it from the blood. A premature baby's body has even more difficulty removing the bilirubin, making it more likely to have jaundice. The symptoms typically begin showing two to four days after birth, with the condition lasting a total of one to two weeks if no complications exist. Watch for the jaundice symptoms within the first few days of your baby's life. The doctors will check for symptoms before leaving the hospital, but many babies leave the hospital after only one or two days; so the symptoms may not appear until after you leave.
Initial Symptoms
A yellow tint to the skin is the most common jaundice symptom. The color change starts in the face. Pressing your baby's face lightly with a finger helps you determine whether the skin is yellow as sometimes it is difficult to tell by simply looking at your baby. If the area where you pressed looks yellow, jaundice is a possibility. A baby without jaundice will simply look like a lighter shade of the skin color when pressed without any yellowish tint.
Later Symptoms
If the jaundice continues getting worse, the yellow color travels to the skin in other areas of the body, such as the chest, arms, abdomen and legs. Even the whites of a baby's eyes may turn a yellowish color with worsening jaundice. If the jaundice goes untreated, more severe symptoms can set in. This includes listlessness, poor feeding, difficulty gaining weight or difficulty waking your baby.
When to Seek Medical Attention
Call your newborn's health care provider immediately if you notice yellowing in the skin or eyes. If you are still in the hospital, ask the nurses to check for possible jaundice. Seek immediate medical care for your baby if the more advanced signs and symptoms of jaundice appear. This allows more immediate treatment to lower the excessively high bilirubin levels. Any time your newborn appears sickly, a checkup from a health care provider is a safe option.
