Neonatal jaundice symptoms and treatment

Neonatal jaundice means Yellowish staining of the skin and whites of the newborn's eyes by pigment of bile. In newborn babies a degree of jaundice is normal. It is due to the breakdown of red blood cells which release bilirubin into the blood and to the immaturity of the newborn's liver which cannot effectively metabolize the bilirubin and prepare it for excretion into the urine.

Normal neonatal jaundice typically appears between the 2nd and 5th days of life and clears with time. Neonatal jaundice is also referred to as neonatal hyper bilirubinemia and physiologic jaundice of the newborn.

Jaundice is a yellow discoloration of the skin and the white part of the eyes. It results from having too much of a substance called bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is formed when the body breaks down old red blood cells. The liver usually processes and removes the bilirubin from the blood. Jaundice in babies usually occurs because of a normal increase in red blood cell breakdown and the fact that their immature livers are not efficient at removing bilirubin from the bloodstream. 

Jaundice in newborns most commonly occurs because their livers are not mature enough to remove bilirubin from the blood. Jaundice may also be caused by a number of other health conditions.

Physiologic jaundice: It is the most common form of newborn jaundice. The baby's liver plays the most important part in bilirubin breakdown. The type of bilirubin that causes the yellow discoloration of jaundice is called unconjugated or indirect bilirubin. This form of bilirubin is not easily removed from the baby's body. The baby's liver changes this unconjugated bilirubin into conjugated or direct bilirubin, which is easier to excrete.

The liver of a newborn baby is immature, so the job of conjugating and removing bilirubin is not done completely well. This causes an elevation of bilirubin, which results in the yellow discoloration of the baby's eyes skin. As the breakdown of red blood cells slows down, and the baby's liver matures, the jaundice rapidly disappears. When jaundice is due to these factors alone, it is termed physiologic jaundice.

Neonatal jaundice: It can be seen in cases of maternal-fetal blood type incompatibility. The mother's body will actually produce antibodies that attack the fetus's blood cells. This causes a breakdown of the red blood cells and thus an increased release of bilirubin from the red cells.

Healthy red blood cells can be destroyed in a condition called hemolysis. A mother who has diabetes may cause a baby to develop neonatal jaundice. Newborn Jaundice Symptoms are fever, poor feeding. Newborn Jaundice Diagnosis is baby’s serum bilirubin level may be checked.

Newborn Jaundice Treatment 

• Sunlight helps to break down indirect bilirubin so that a baby's liver can process it more easily. 
• If the bilirubin level is too high, the child may need to be placed under a special type of light. This treatment is called photo-therapy. 

Read More about Newborn Jaundice

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