Jaundice - just below level necessary for treatment

[Moomin8]

My baby is a week old and she has quite bad jaundice. She was born at 37+2. I'm breastfeeding and I decided to give her some formula top ups to help flush out the jaundice. I know this is not ideal when establishing a milk supply but I have a lot of milk.

Any other tips that may help?

DS2 was jaundiced and we were readmitted on day 3 for light treatment. His levels dropped below the level for treatment but he remained jaundiced for 8 or 9 weeks.

He had a prolonged jaundice screening and his levels were not concerning, it just took a while for the jaundice to disappear!

DS2 is ebf and there is no need to give formula to flush out the jaundice (obviously it's fine to give formula if you want to but it's not necessary as a result of the jaundice). Provided the levels are checked the jaundice isn't harmful to baby so you can just carry on bf and wait it out!

My dd was jaundice for 8 or 9 weeks and was exclusively bf. Consultant.did her skin dappy thing and decided as long as it was dropping not rising treatment wasn't needed.

Advised to get her outside in the sun (November baby!) as much as possible or naked near a well lit window but that was all.

My stupid health visitor told me I should stop bf as that was the cause but consultant confirmed it was nonsence and to carry on.

My dd needed phototherapy and we were in hospital for a week for that, then some blood tests and monitoring out of hospital after that. It was a really stressful time. Noone ever advised me to do anything other than breastfeed though. I was encouraged to express breastmilk and give extra in syringes after feeds because sometimes she was too sleepy to feed enough. Good luck with it all. Can be quite hard!

My DS was born at 33+4 and was treated for jaundice in NICU but remained jaundiced for quite some time, even once below levels for treatment. He had breast milk only and it did eventually clear by about 5 weeks old. Be careful with top ups that you don't let your milk supply drop (I speak from bitter experience) - are you expressing to maintain supply?

I had a winter born jaundice baby, it's difficult this time of year but as much much sunlight as you can manage. Plus breastfeeding loads, wake baby up every couple of hours if sleepy. I did strip down for nappy change to wake properly before feeding.