13 day old with jaundice

[Freddie15VES]

13 day old still has pretty high levels of jaundice. Had 2 blood tests so far and both below treatment level and dropping. They’re saying it’s breast milk/feeding jaundice?

But I didn’t ask, when they do the blood tests do they also check for anything else?

I’ve got to go back to the hospital tomorrow to have further checks due to her being 14 days old and it being classed as prolonged jaundice so she’ll have urine sample etc

Has anyone else been through this? Had a bit of a shit start after having her, me not her but it’s left me with pretty bad health anxiety and I guess I’m just looking for some reassurance that if it was anything sinister they’d have possibly picked up on it by now?!

This was basically me with my first. I was really anxious but, if the levels are dropping, just keep feeding as much as possible and it will be ok.

The reason for the blood tests is to not miss some very rare liver abnormalities, most importantly biliary atresia (parts of the liver and bile duct didn't grow). They will check something called conjugated bilirubin specifically. If this isn't high (even if overall levels are "high" (=normal for many babies!)) the chance of a serious problem is minimal, if the baby is otherwise feeding and growing well.

My baby had a really prolonged jaundice which fully cleared only after 12 weeks! I was anxious as well. I don’t get this breast milk jaundice and I am sceptical about this. They all get vit K shot nowadays and there’s some evidence it can cause jaundice in some babies. It will clear with your child, don’t worry, she’s not meeting the treatment threshold, so no worries, as long as the levels are gradually going down. Feed her with breast milk as much as possible. I hope it clears soon x.

Both mine had it. The advice was simply to sit with them close to the window. Fortunately for me, the weather was rather better than it has been recently and so it cleared up pretty quickly.

I can well imagine that with the weather we've been having recently, sitting by the window won't be terribly effective!

My baby had prolonged jaundice - some days he'd look yellow and other days he wouldn't but, his eyes did.
He was under the levels for treatment but was referred to the prolonged jaundice clinic and had blood tests.

They basically told me that putting them in sunlight is only good for neonatal jaundice (Upto 14 days) and that prolonged jaundice is common in breastfed babies as the bilirubin sticks to formula and flushes through but, it doesn't stick to breast milk.

She told me it'd be clear by time he was 4 months and it has.

As long as the levels are dropping and the other blood tests are normal, your baby will be fine

To the poster above: there is no evidence at all linking current doses of vitamin K to jaundice - there were cases linked to much higher doses back in the 1950s.

The link to breastfeeding is well established (though not associated with risk of any complications absent other problems going on, so certainly not a reason not to breastfeed).

Some babies have jaundice that doesn't fully resolve for several weeks. A small number of babies have jaundice at a level that can cause damage in and of itself - hence the initial monitoring to ensure phototherapy is offered to newborns well before there can be any risk of that. The first bloodtests done when there is concern about jaundice usually include checks for a few things that can exacerbate early jaundice. Similarly a small number have prolonged jaundice partly because of other medical problems, and the extra checks at 2 weeks are designed to pick up those so that they can be treated promptly.

Most babies checked at 2 weeks are absolutely fine. I hope things went well for you today and that everything continues to improve for you and your baby over the next few days. (I realise that you might not get results from the tests for a day or two, the last time I was helping with a prolonged jaundice clinic I think we checked all results the following day and contacted parents if there were any concerns at that point).

Very best wishes.