Jaundice and feeding

[banana87]

Sorry, me again. Still in hospital with DD2 who is 3 days old. She is having a bilirubin test before they let us go home and have already said if her levels are high then they will put her under the lights and formula feed???? I have said I'm NOT happy with this, she is feeding very well on the breast but they said she will need formula to flush her system. I'm not getting too worked up until blood results say she needs the lights, which hopefully they won't, but can someone point me towards facts about jaundice and the necessity to top up. I want to be armed with the knowledge beforehand. Thanks!

no, you can still bf, even with phototherapy.
but others might have better information.
try not to eat too colourfull veg (beetroot, carrots) as the colour is also processed by the liver.

Jack Newman - might help. Colostrum is a natural laxative and far better at 'flushing out' her system.

Thanks will have a look. I'm getting really annoyed that this is the third or fourth time in her short life that they've tried to talk me into formula feeding for one reason or another. No means no!

banana, sorry you are under pressure. Just occasionally jaundice is bad enough and formula is needed if the mother cannot bf direct very well and/or expressing does not yield sufficient colostrum....but this is rare.

If your baby needs more milk than she is getting at present to 'flush the system' then of course you can express colostrum/milk - staff need to explain to you why this is not a good option.

There is plenty of academic literature to back up this as a safe option in most cases. They need to tell you why your baby is an exception.

mousey - I have never heard that mothers of jaundiced babies should avoid colourful veg....have you got a reference for that, thanks :)

no, sorry no reference, but a (german) paed and a midwife told me that. so I don't know if it is woo

DS had very high levels of jaundice (360) so they wanted me to bottle feed him only so they knew exactly how much (and how often) he was getting so it could be flushed out quickly.I expressed like mad and fed him with a bottle for 48 hrs. Often after finishing a bottle feed I bf for a little bit before putting him back under the lights. Formula is no different to breast milk, they just want to be exact on what your little one is getting. Hope it gets flushed out soon, horrid not being able to cuddle your newborn as they are under lights.
Hope it works out.

I had to do this with DD and wasn't happy at the time but with hindsight it was a minor detail. She had sky high bilrubin at 5 days and had to go under the UV lights.

They wanted her to be tube fed so that she didn't have to come out from the UV light for feeding. The doctor wanted her to be getting 60 mills per feed. I could only express 20-30 (my milk was slow coming in) so I agreed to top up with formula.

I was very concerned about it affecting breastfeeding. But as it happened, she only needed 4 formula top-ups - her bilrubin fell really fast and she only had to stay under the lights for 12 hours. Once she was out from the lights, the doctors agreed that I could go back to BF and they would monitor with bilrubin tests for another 24 hours.

The bilrubin continued to fall and all was well. We left hospital - she has been ebf ever since (she is 5 months now) and I don't think those four formula top-ups are anything to worry about.

My tips would be - push really hard to be allowed to express and then top-up with formula if necessary. You need to be expressing to maintain your supply while she's under the lights anyway so she might as well be given that milk. And if you produce enough, she might not need much extra formula.

Good luck!

Gotta be woo, sorry, mousey.....and while it can't hurt, it complicates postnatal life which is never a good thing!

No helpful advice I'm afraid but just wanted to send you a hug, having been though something similar myself. My ds levels were not so high though and I was able to bf jaundice away. Bloody stressful at the time though. good luck for you both xxx

Blood results show the levels aren't high enough to require treatment so they are leaving us alone to go home! Thanks for the info though ladies!

glad to hear!
enjoy your own bed and your own bathroom!