Jaundice and the giant baby.

[oldmanchris]

My wife, bless her, birthed a baby that can best be described as a cross between a watermelon and a python. He was 4.2kg and 58cm at birth. In fact, the doc's first words were "Whoa! He's a big one!"

He had a bout with jaundice at the start and stayed in hospital for 1 day under the sunlamp.

The trouble is, the jaundice has never left him and he's now a month old. The wife (Minister of Home Affairs, Culture and the Arts, Cuisine and Education) has been boob-feeding him all the way (she supplements with 1-2 bottles of formula daily). He vacuums down about 100ml of milk each feeding (for the last fortnight or so).

The little boulder is now 6kg+ after a month and his jaundice levels are still borderline high (180, or so - the doctors said).

We were advised to 'monitor' him and bring him in for another test in a week - this time, by drawing blood through his veins.

The thought of sticking a needle into him pains me. The thought that the doctors seem to be telling us that they're not going to do ANYTHING except 'wait and see' (and they charged us for the consultation too!) frustrates me.

Is retaining jaundice after a month a reasonably normal thing? Have any mums here been through this before? A really frustrated father would love to hear some advice.

 

[Twirlycandy]

My wife, bless her, birthed a baby that can best be described as a cross between a watermelon and a python. He was 4.2kg and 58cm at birth. In fact, the doc's first words were "Whoa! He's a big one!"

He had a bout with jaundice at the start and stayed in hospital for 1 day under the sunlamp.

The trouble is, the jaundice has never left him and he's now a month old. The wife (Minister of Home Affairs, Culture and the Arts, Cuisine and Education) has been boob-feeding him all the way (she supplements with 1-2 bottles of formula daily). He vacuums down about 100ml of milk each feeding (for the last fortnight or so).

The little boulder is now 6kg+ after a month and his jaundice levels are still borderline high (180, or so - the doctors said).

We were advised to 'monitor' him and bring him in for another test in a week - this time, by drawing blood through his veins.

The thought of sticking a needle into him pains me. The thought that the doctors seem to be telling us that they're not going to do ANYTHING except 'wait and see' (and they charged us for the consultation too!) frustrates me.

Is retaining jaundice after a month a reasonably normal thing? Have any mums here been through this before? A really frustrated father would love to hear some advice.

Hi there,

I think most babies are born with some degree of jaundice, with cases made worse when the baby has g6pd deficiency. Total breastfeeding may give babies 'breastmilk jaundice' too.

My babygirl has g6pd deficiency and is on full breastmilk feeds. Her jaundice took about a month to taper off before eventually going away. She is 7 weeks now and has been pricked 4-5 times in total for the jaundice level checks.

My pd's advice was to just continue breastfeeding her and as long as the levels does not go beyond a certain threshold, no phototherapy is needed.

So we just leave it as it is till it went away

 

[oldmanchris]

That does make me feel a bit better. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nvidia]

Do a bit of sunbathing through the window (not directly under the hot sun) can help also, about 10-15mins early morning or evening.
Hang on and take care.

 

[oldmanchris]

Do a bit of sunbathing through the window (not directly under the hot sun) can help also, about 10-15mins early morning or evening.
Hang on and take care.

Yes, we've been doing that every day, using the 8am (or so) sun. We can only hope that it's helping. Thanks so much.

 

[isenggirl]

How high is the reading?

 

[gammahedging]

My wife, bless her, birthed a baby that can best be described as a cross between a watermelon and a python. He was 4.2kg and 58cm at birth. In fact, the doc's first words were "Whoa! He's a big one!"

He had a bout with jaundice at the start and stayed in hospital for 1 day under the sunlamp.

The trouble is, the jaundice has never left him and he's now a month old. The wife (Minister of Home Affairs, Culture and the Arts, Cuisine and Education) has been boob-feeding him all the way (she supplements with 1-2 bottles of formula daily). He vacuums down about 100ml of milk each feeding (for the last fortnight or so).

The little boulder is now 6kg+ after a month and his jaundice levels are still borderline high (180, or so - the doctors said).

We were advised to 'monitor' him and bring him in for another test in a week - this time, by drawing blood through his veins.

The thought of sticking a needle into him pains me. The thought that the doctors seem to be telling us that they're not going to do ANYTHING except 'wait and see' (and they charged us for the consultation too!) frustrates me.

Is retaining jaundice after a month a reasonably normal thing? Have any mums here been through this before? A really frustrated father would love to hear some advice.

Did you take him to the polyclinic or the PD? Some PDs have a device to measure the serum bilirubin levels contactlessly. This method works provided the baby hasn't had phototherapy recently. And yes my LO had BM jaundice which cleared only at wk 7 or so. If you want to clear it faster, give more FM. Prior to me taking LO for her review back then , I was alternating between FM and BM (i.e. BM, FM, BM, FM) Was really sick and tired of having to go for review and I wanted to get her private integrated shield plan done up asap.

And yes if it is borderline high you can try haggling with the dr. say that u want to come back in 2 weeks' time instead of 1 week. That will give u some more time to try to bring down the serum bilirubin levels and because it is only borderline high, there is no merit in monitoring weekly.