Jaundice refers to the yellowing of skin and the whites of your eyes that occurs when your liver cannot rid the body of a yellow pigment called bilirubin. Jaundice is common in newborns, whose livers are not completely mature. This type of jaundice is usually not serious and will resolve itself without any treatment. However, jaundice can also be a sign of a more serious condition.
Symptoms
A baby with jaundice has yellowish skin all over his body, and the whites of his eyes look yellow. The yellowish tint starts in his face and eyes and if the condition continues, the yellow tint spreads to his chest, abdomen and limbs. Your baby might also seem listless or not eat well. To test for jaundice, press down lightly on your baby's skin. If his skin looks yellow, instead of just looking lighter than its normal color, your baby has jaundice.
Significance
Jaundice is caused by too much bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is a yellow pigment that forms as red blood cells break down. Normally, your liver removes bilirubin from the blood efficiently, but an immature or infected liver cannot keep up, allowing bilirubin levels to build to the point of skin discoloration.
Jaundice is very common in newborns---almost 60 percent of full-term babies have jaundice, states "The Children's Hospital Guide to Your Child's Health and Development" because even in full-term babies, the liver is not quite mature. Premature babies, with less advanced liver function, have an even higher rate of jaundice. Sometimes, jaundice in a baby can be a sign of disease or infection, so it is always best to consult with your pediatrician if your baby has jaundice.
Time Frame
Bilirubin levels peak between three to five days after birth so if your newborn has jaundice because of an immature liver, the symptoms usually appear between the second and fourth day after birth, according to the Mayo clinic. Your newborn will be checked for this "physiological jaundice" in the hospital and your pediatrician might recommend a follow-up appointment to check for jaundice within two days of your discharge from the hospital. Physiological jaundice usually resolves itself within a few weeks.
Cases of jaundice outside of this time frame are probably due to a disease or infection of the liver ("pathological jaundice"). Your pediatrician will need to identify the underlying cause to determine the correct treatment.
Solution
Newborn physiological jaundice will usually clear up own its own, but if the bilirubin levels are very high, your doctor might suggest phototherapy to speed up the clearance of bilirubin. Light in the blue-green spectrum breaks down bilirubin so it can be eliminated quickly.
Warning
Very severe jaundice can cause permanent damage because bilirubin poisons brain cells. However, bilirubin will not pass into the brain unless the levels in blood are extremely high. You cannot tell how high the blood levels are by the color of the baby's skin, but a baby with severe jaundice probably has other symptoms like listlessness, fever, poor feeding and high-pitched crying.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Infant Jaundice
- "The Children's Hospital Guide to Your Child's Health and Development"; A. Woolf, H. Shane and M. Kenna; 2001
