Neonatal Jaundice
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## 🌞 **Neonatal Jaundice**
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### 🟡 **What is it?**
**Neonatal jaundice** is a common condition in newborns where the skin, eyes, and sometimes gums appear **yellow** due to a **high level of bilirubin** in the blood.
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### 💡 **What is Bilirubin?**
Bilirubin is a **yellow pigment** produced during the **normal breakdown of red blood cells**. The liver usually processes it, but in newborns, the liver is still maturing, so bilirubin can build up.
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### 📊 **Types of Neonatal Jaundice**
1. **Physiological Jaundice**
- Most common
- Appears **2–4 days after birth**, resolves by **1–2 weeks**
- Due to immature liver
2. **Pathological Jaundice**
- Appears **within the first 24 hours**
- Caused by serious issues (e.g., blood group incompatibility, infection, liver disease)
- Needs urgent treatment
3. **Breastfeeding Jaundice**
- Occurs in the **first week**
- Due to **not enough milk intake**
4. **Breast Milk Jaundice**
- Appears **after the first week**
- Caused by **substances in breast milk** that slow bilirubin breakdown
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### ⚠️ **Symptoms**
- Yellowing of the skin and eyes
- Sleepiness
- Poor feeding
- High-pitched crying (in severe cases)
- Dark yellow urine or pale stools
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### 🧪 **Diagnosis**
- **Visual examination**
- **Serum bilirubin test**
- **Transcutaneous bilirubinometer** (non-invasive skin test)
- Blood type and Coombs test (for Rh/ABO incompatibility)
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### 🛠️ **Treatment**
Depends on **bilirubin levels**, age, and health:
1. **Phototherapy**
- Special blue light helps break down bilirubin in the skin
2. **Feeding support**
- Frequent breastfeeding helps eliminate bilirubin via stool
3. **Exchange transfusion** (in severe cases)
- Replaces baby's blood with donor blood
4. **Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)**
- For Rh or ABO incompatibility
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### 🛡️ **Prevention & Monitoring**
- Early and frequent feeding
- Monitoring bilirubin levels in newborns at risk
- Prenatal blood tests for mother-baby incompatibilities
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### 📌 **When to Worry**
- Jaundice appears **within 24 hours**
- Jaundice spreads to **arms and legs**
- Baby is **very sleepy**, hard to wake, or not feeding well
- **Dark urine** or **white/pale stools**
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