What is Newborn Jaundice?

What is Newborn Jaundice?

Jaundice is a word to describe a yellosih color of the skin or the whites of the eyes. Approximately 50-60 percent of all normal birth, full-term infants develop jaundice during the first week of their life. And, about 80 percent of all premature infants develop jaundice. Jaundice is fairly common and is usually completely harmless in many newborn infants. Jaundice is not a disease but a condition. All during a person's life new blood cells are being created and the old ones are being destroyed. Parts of the old cells are broken down and an oxygen-carrying substance called hemoglobin is changed to bilirubin.

Bilirubin (pronounced "billy reuben") is a yellow colored substance. This bilirubin is normally removed by the liver but in the cases of many normal newborns their liver is not mature enough to get rid of the bilirubin. Therefore, a build-up results in the blood stream. It is this bilirubin build-up that causes the skin and whites of the eyes to become yellow.

Most infants with jaundice have no other symptoms. They are alert, eat and sleep normally. However, a parent should call the infant's health care provider immediately or seek emergency medical care if the infant develops increased sleepiness, is hard to wake, sucks or nurses poorly, appears weak or floppy, arches the neck or back backwards, or develops a high-pitched cry or fever. These may be early warning signs of dangerously high levels of bilirubin that require prompt treatment to prevent a rare form of brain damage called kernicterus.

Will my baby be checked, and how?