Many babies are born with jaundice and it is pretty normal. The “accepted” level is somewhere around 13 (although hospitals will be more cautious than that).
Our baby had a bilirubin (the yellow in jaundice) level of only 8 in the hospital – yet they still had her sleep one night in the phototherapy bed (see above). Essentially, the bilirubin can be reduced with the phototherapy or more commonly by just pooping it out.
After the leaving the hospital, we were instructed to try and feed our baby a little more than usual to “poop the bili out”. So we essentially poured milk down her throat in hopes that it would reduce the levels and rejoiced when her butt would explode with a “bili poop”. Also, don’t be surprised if the hospital or doctors recommend formula to help eliminate the bili. Apparently the formula helps accelerate this process. We did not want our baby on formula and so we did this the couple days in the hospital but stopped once we came home, hence our need to feed, feed, feed (either by breastfeeding or bottled breast milk).
We returned to the doctor a few days in a row so they could check her levels. How do they check the levels? They prick the baby in the heel and squeeze blood out. Not very fun having to do this three days in a row.
Another fun fact – the eyes will remain yellow the longest, even if the levels are fine in the rest of the body, so don’t freak out if the whites of your baby’s eyes look like a black cat in the night.
Leave a Reply