Can breastfeeding cause jaundice?

[wintersapproaching]

Hi

My friend was at a paediatrician appointment for her daughter today when the paed commented that her other daughter (9mths) looked jaundiced and asked her if she was breastfeeding. My friend dropped down to only the first feed of the day a month of so ago and the paed said "yes breastfeeding can cause jaundice we dont know why".

Is this accurate do you think? My friend said she wasn't told to do anything about it but she is now thinking about it and if she needs treatment or will it go?

Thanks for any information

No idea but I know when DD was newborn and jaundiced all the health professionals said this was common for b/fed babies.

Don't know if this is a colostrum issue rather than a milk one though.

There is something called breastmilk jaundice, but it usually disappears between 8-10 weeks.

TBH I would have thought the Paed would have taken some bloods from her dd to rule out liver problems.

My DS was jaundiced a few days after being born and went on the bilibed for a few days.
I was told breastmilk was best to treat jaundiced and lots of milk helps to flush the jaundice out (or the cells that cause jaundice, my memory fails me).
I haven't heard of jaundice for an older baby.
Other treatment for jaundice, alongside lots of milk, is to get some sunlight.
Does sound a bit odd for a 9 month old to be jaundiced. Admittedly I know very little and not qualified in any way, shape or form. Sorry have probably confused things.

I think either this was a very new paed, or your friend has misunderstood.

A 9 mth old baby would normally not still have breastmilk jaundice (an fairly unusual but not usually harmful condition - emedicine.medscape.com/article/973629-overview)

Sometimes, neonatal jaundice takes a little while to clear from bf babies compared to ff babies, but this can be perfectly physiological...usually no 'treatment' needed except to increase access to the breast.

My 5 weeker has this apparantly, my other kids did have jaundice but not for this long. DS was slightly early though.

She might not be jaundiced. Could it be her colouring/ethnic background? Or has she taken a liking to carrots?
My cousin went quite 'sallow' at one point and everyone was concerned til aunty realised that LO was mostly eating carrots, the pigment can colour the skin if eaten in large quantities.
Doesn't seem logical that the biological norm of bf would 'cause' a problem iyswim? More that it was something that HCPs aren't as used to seeing, and no 'treatment' usually required as tiktok says.

thanks for all your responses.

The baby has always had this colouring and personally I think her older sister was darker and has got lighter as she gets older.

Ill pass this onto my friend - cheers!